Trees Speak
PostHuman

LA RECENSIONE

There are few bands today that carry forward the classic Krautrock sounds as a source of inspiration, filtering and reinterpreting them in the current context, like I Trees Speak.

This band hails from Arizona, and PostHuman is their fourth work. With its 16 (short) tracks, it packs a lot of material into their rapidly expanding discography. With each subsequent release, the group has strengthened its focus, curbing their more radical impulses, creating complete and progressive journeys.

PostHuman is their most cinematic work to date, with each track resembling a distinct scene from a film, while still being part of a single, at times cosmic, journey.

The setting is cinematic with typical scenes from some films of the 60s and 70s. Undoubtedly, these instrumental pieces could complement images on the screen, or at least they can help with the listener’s cerebral complicity to create personal and mental films with their own images and sequences.

The band is still heavily influenced by 70s Krautrock with Tangerine Dream and the motorik of Neu! The rhythm of tracks like "Glass" blends suspense and hypnotism.

"Chamber of Frequencies" weaves rippling synth arpeggios with showers of psychedelic and skewed brass, equally divided between bliss and existential confusion. "Elements of Matter" encapsulates reverb with spatial effects, trembling keyboards, and overdubbed drum beats over a sparse and anxious syncopated groove.

While some tracks seem to offer slight relief, others greatly increase the suspense, from the clangorous and eerie "Scheinwelt," the most experimental track, with its German title paying homage to the past, to the spectral and hallucinatory funk of "X Zeit." Among the highlights, "Steckdose" is a good synthesis of the album's allure, opening with unstable chords and fluttering synthesizers before launching into a driving beat, then vanishing into a slower tempo before other fragmented synthesizers emerge, opening up to the arpeggiated core of "Amnesia Transmitter."

"Quantize Humanize," heavy with vocoder and adorned with Mellotron, exudes a lounge atmosphere in the style of Air, paving the way for the rising strings and panting brass of the somber "Gläserner Mensch."

Expansive without seeming disjointed, PostHuman is a fluid work, seemingly effortlessly crafted, reworking well-known and debated foundations of the past, but with a richness of new ideas and positive vibes for those who find and want to enjoy them.