As a band name, Nobody and Mystic Chords of Memory sounds like a joke, like the psychedelic minstrel equivalent of Spinal Tap. Yet there is a good reason for the slightly absurd, and long-winded, moniker. Tree Colored See is the collaboration between Nobody, a Los Angeles based indie/electronic producer, and Mystic Chords of Memory, the current project for former Beachwood Spark Christopher Gunst and his partner Jen Cohen. The three of them could have gone with a simper name for this collaboration, but they were clearly far too busy creating this gorgeous, lush meld of folk and electronica to worry about their name. The problem with the name is not entirely just because it’s long and sounds like the title of a prog-rock opera, it’s also misleading. At a glance the record appears to be a remix album, that slightly uneasy beast that attempts to reinterpret an album to reach a new audience simply by adding some vague beats under the existing material. Tree Colored See is no such disaster. From beginning to end this album is the result of a collaboration rather than reinterpretation and it sounds and feels like the product of a perfect understanding of musician and producer. The closest reference point is probably Caribou (Manitoba) in his gentler moments, the emphasis here is definitely more cocooning the fragile melodies and lyrics in the gentlest of beats. Yet this album is unlike many albums that have been, sometimes awkwardly, categorised as folktronica. As, rather than creating soundscapes in the manner of Four Tet or Caribou, Tree Colored See is strongly assisted by the imagery of its lyrics. Perhaps this is what the collaboration between Portishead’s Beth Gibbins and Talk Talk’s Paul Webb, Out of Season, would have sounded like if the balance was tipped slightly towards the Potishead trip-hop. A local reference point would be Machine Translations who often plays his indie ballads over beds of calming electronica. These are intricate songs, equally at home bubbling away in the background as they are on headphones burrowing deep in to your consciousness. There is rainy day, late afternoon contemplation that graces the songs. Closing track, Floating, seems to sum up the albums intent as Gunst sings, "I was sleeping, gently drifting laying back in the back of a car woke up hearing you singing mix in with the rain and a guitar." Everything on the album emerges from a place somewhere between dreams and waking as muted beats fold in with the gentle Americana and psychedelic folk and the vocals float above with nature tinged imagery. Lyrically this is a world of twilight strolls, languid afternoons and winsome wildlife. Broaden A New Sound is driven by a piano melody that would have happily graced a Money Mark album back when he still wrote pop ditties. It’s also included on the Australian release bonus disk as a single edit version. Also on the bonus disk is the more noteworthy inclusion of Devendra Banhart performing the albums opening song, The Seed, in Spanish. Banhart’s La Semilla is a more sinister take, playing up the spooky atmospherics. There’s also a glitchy remix of Feet Upon Sand by the half of The Postal Service that isn’t the lead singer of Death Cab for Cutie, DNTEL. So, while their name may be slightly suspect it’s easy to see past it when they produce such wonderful results in the studio. - Faster Louder
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1XLP/Out Of Print