Espers
The Weed Tree

THE REVIEW

I still can't understand how and why it happened. Given the musical premises, nothing suggested such a total falling in love.

Yes, because that's what it is: I think I have a soft spot for the Espers. No, not a momentary infatuation, like dozens happen during a year of listening, but by now a long-lasting relationship, always growing, at least since late 2006. I had heard them briefly at the time of their debut, dismissing them as "boring". But, thanks to a user of our dear DeBaser, I tried to recover the second album. I haven't thanked them enough yet.

I can listen to the Espers at any time, even though they are essentially a nocturnal and melancholic/psychedelic band, as soft as the female voice is, as disturbing is the hyper-distorted guitar. A strange combination of feet firmly planted in America (the band is from Philadelphia) but with heads lost in the misty moors of Albion, so many are the references to the varied British folk scene. So good as to enchant even with an EP of rearranged traditionals and covers, often taken from unexpected sources compared to their music.

I swear I often get moved when I listen to the cellos and voices dueting straight to the night sky of "Black Is The Color", or the pastoral breath that transfigures "Afraid" taken from Nico's repertoire. Different but always with an open heart are the feelings of the two best tracks on the album: "Blue Mountain" by Michael Hurley (never seen or heard), is a rural mantra, but in a moor frequented by synth-disguised ghosts; "Flaming Telepaths" by the Blue Oyster Cult, is twice as long as the original, starting gently, only to burst into the white noise of a six-string foaming with anger. And they even find a way to lighten their atmospheres with a cover of the Durutti Column, "Tomorrow", something to open the windows at 7 a.m. and smile at the new day, as if we were at Mulino Bianco.

Don't try to listen to the Espers with the cynical ear of the connoisseur, or of "one who knows it all," they won't give you anything, and they might even irritate you. But if you try to open the doors of your heart and mind to them, or less emphatically, if you try to listen to them without preconceptions, a world of emotions you thought lost will be revealed to you.

Download them, listen to them, buy them.

In a word, love them.