[folk-rock, indie-folk] (2020) Espers - Espers + The Weed Tree (2...

(2020) Espers - Espers + The Weed Tree (2004, 2005 Reissue)

Review:

Over a decade after the release of their last album, Espers has reissued their two earliest works via Drag City Records. The trio of Meg Baird, Greg Weeks and Brooke Sietinsons formed in Philadelphia around 2004, and released their self-titled debut album that year. According to Drag City, the band’s debut album showcased “delicate-yet-full-toned arrangements strewn with classical and traditional music touches, acid leads and a folkish air suffused with ennui (really, is there any other kind?) – all in stark contrast to their peers, whose ennui had to do with typical youth problems and the tech-based world that was coming.” Espers followed the self-titled album with The Weed Tree EP in 2005, and went on to release two more LPs before dissolving in 2010. Acid-folk maestro Greg Weeks’ psychedelic trio Espers — with Meg Baird and Brooke Sietinsons — has created a delicate and blissfully unsettling debut. Weeks’ autoharp on tracks like “Flowery Noontide” conjures images of home-baked ’60s folk played by sincere and optimistic flower children and dark and dreamy drifters. “Meadow,” similarly, recalls the sunshine and doom chamber pop and subtle acoustic guitar of Donovan on “Susan on the West Coast Waiting” or “Atlantis,” or Fairport Convention. “Riding” could easily fit on the Super Furry Animals brilliant and catchy West Coast pop collection Phantom Power — but then “Voices” is nearly as hazy and Far Eastern as Six Organs of Admittance, and “Hearts & Daggers” is over eight minutes of druggy, medieval-inspired British baroque noise. Espers’ music is entirely incongruous with the trends of 2003-2004 — from the devil-may-care rock of Jet and the Strokes, to the over-the-top, cosmic, and sexy wunder-metal of the Darkness. But you can’t help but feel that Espers are onto something — not quite the soft-is-the-new-loud irony of Belle & Sebastian, but a more sinister and trippy picture of a foreboding horizon in the midst of the most beautiful sunset.

***

Like a reincarnated Pentangle for the neo-psychedelic folk crowd, newly expanded Philadelphia sextet the Espers come full circle on their intoxicating EP The Weed Tree. Less murky than their self-titled debut, Tree is a bright, fluid, and promising collection of six covers and one original that sees the group poised for an explosive (quietly, that is) full-length record in the near future. The Espers mine the traditional (“Rosemary Lane,” “Black Is the Color”) with grace and reverence, keeping the framework steeped in enough British folk acoustics that when a keyboard appears out of nowhere it’s not at all intrusive; rather it’s the lightening bolt in a gray sky that illuminates the crows below. Speaking of dark imagery, the collective’s creepy rendition of Blue Öyster Cult’s “Flaming Telepaths” from 1974’s Secret Treaties stays surprisingly true to its source. A haunting version of Manchester, England, post-punk outfit Durutti Column’s “Tomorrow” is also a highlight, with the refreshingly clear voices of Meg Baird and Greg Weeks finding the perfect middle ground between despair and serenity. The Weed Tree could have been an exercise in tedium, but like fellow interpreter Alasdair Roberts, the Espers have more than a love for the sound of late-’60s acid folk; they have a vision for its future.

Tracklist:

Disc 1 - Espers (2004, Reissue)
01 - Flowery Noontide
02 - Meadow
03 - Riding
04 - Voices
05 - Hearts & Daggers
06 - Byss & Abyss
07 - Daughter
08 - Travel Mountains

Disc 2 - The Weed Tree (2005 Reissue)
01 - Rosemary Lane
02 - Tomorrow
03 - Black Is the Color
04 - Afraid
05 - Blue Mountain
06 - Flaming Telepaths
07 - Dead King

Media Report:

Genre: folk-rock, indie-folk
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits