Arizona-based musical family enterprise Trees Speak has been astounding audiences with its rather persistent productivity since 2020. Two records a year have been standard for the father and son duo to date, and in 2021 they even managed to release a double album (»Vertigo of Flaws«). The fact that they took a break in 2022 is only noticeable in retrospect, particularly since they were also touring extensively during this period. Now they continue in their reliable manner with »Mind Maze«. Musically, Daniel Martin Diaz and Damian Diaz maintain their course, cultivating their reverence for Kraut, psychedelic and prog rock via no wave and post-punk to sixties soundtracks (»Sospetto« harks back to Italian gialli). But they don’t do everything on their own: For their recordings in New York, they brought in various guests like Gabriel Sullivan from Giant Sand. The question of what they actually achieve beyond channelling their preferences into their own flow, without necessarily creating new music, comes up with every new Trees Speak record. Again the answer is: They do it in such a charming way that you gladly follow their lead. Perhaps more with a sense of nostalgia than in anticipation of the future. But certainly without boredom. Only the Kraftwerk rip-off »Machines Speak« wouldn’t have been necessary in its conspicuousness.
Mind Maze
