Perfume Tree

A Lifetime Away (World Domination)
by Lex Marburger

How do you compete with a bio that says “The best thing Björk has never done,” I ask you? Perfume Tree has a firm hand on the backbeat, laying down grooves so pure, while dub bass keeps a handle on things in the low end. Meanwhile, jovially competing for dominance is a feedback guitar doing Hendrix really slowly, and a voice straight from above the clouds. Melodies sound like they’re from the Middle East at times, Middle American Plains Indians at others. Sometimes they settle into trip-hop, at others into dub, and at still others into Lisa Gerrard-style solo work. But the music never stays in one position for very long, it cycles around, glancing off of styles and creating new things, exploring. They never shy from the groove, however. It’s always stable. Even when the vocals slide into the Celtic arena, the drums are always there, snapping and popping, accentuating both the on and off beats. A Lifetime Away is a wonderful blend of cultures, sounds from across the planet nestled comfortably next to each other in the channel of the backbeat. Never out of place, each sound complementing the next, be it a brassy sound accompanying a Gregorian chant-sounding vocal, or Middle Eastern flutes over a solid groove.