Audio experimental!
This is the third album for Oxford experimental rockers The Treat, and whilst their last album, ‘Phonography’ in 2007 saw them stretch out further than being just ‘a classic rock’n’roll band’, here they have blown the expectations out of the water by releasing a double album. Packed with twenty tracks, it is in fact packaged as four sides that once again showcases the band’s ability to be different and try their hand at many genres. We have a Rock side, an Acoustic side, Electric side and Experiment side letting main man Mike Hyder unleash his muse, and flex his creative musical muscle.
The first five songs make up the Rock side and arguably this could be what you would be most familiar with as a Treat fan. ‘This Is The One’ has that 70’s rock feel of Zepplin with big guitars and sing-along vocals. This then leads to, ‘Showtime’ that is a quirky rock song with stoner-fuzzbox guitars, and a more theatrical rock-influence of the likes of 12 Stone Toddler partying with David Bowie and WASP…Next song, ‘Drawing Lines’ has chugging guitars before the song explodes into a great anthem of a track. Pulling classic rock influences with a dash of The Ramones it’s a pure joy to my ears. Things then slow down for a chilled, laid back psychedelic rock/jazz number in, ‘On The Waterfront’, and this is the first of the songs that suggest that you shouldn’t take too much notice in the ‘Rock, Acoustic, Electric & Experiment’ headings, as the songs could be under either headings. Then in, ‘For A Reason’ we have a quick-tempo foot-tapper that is catchy with a melodic guitar riff, and a shuffling drum beat. Good stuff.
The first song under the ‘Acoustic’ banner is, ‘Beautiful Way’ that has the band’s almost famous long-intro that we’ve become accustomed to. It’s gentle with a trumpet and flugelhorn along with an acoustic guitar giving a contemplative lazy-afternoon-in-the-sun daydream of a track, before the kaleidoscopic musical mix of ‘Cycles’. This is a song that has a Tonbak & Daf and is head on collision of Folk, Blues, Eastern and a hint of Country, but works well. Then we have ‘Sweet Jasmine’ which is a thoughtful instrumental sounding very much like some of Eddie Vedder’s solo music on the soundtrack he wrote for the film ‘Into The Wild’. The next track is a cross between an Irish Folk track and Frank Turner, and called, ‘By The Sea’. It’s another sing-along and ale drinking song that’s as catchy as scurvy but a whole lot more welcoming! The last song in the section is ‘The Dragon Den’ which once again sees Mike tip his hat to John Lennon and The Beatles in a mid-tempo track in this very vein.
As the beginnings of the ‘Electric’ section starts I realise that this is a side of the band which could very well be their strongest, and whilst I also suspect that Mike Hyder likes to tinker with his experimental side, this is where his true strength lies. ‘Massive Attack’ is a blistering track with big deep guitar riffs and a real Heavy Metal feeling towards it, whereas ‘Anger Management’ is very much Janes Addiction, a side to the band that I’ve not seen before but again whole-heartedly encourage. ‘Cybernaut’ has the big Sabbath-esque riffs and slots nicely under the 70’s Metal umbrella. Things then get slightly strange in, ‘Silent Voices’ that sound a little like Porno For Pyros with it’s experimental melodic Rock, whilst we have some good old Folk/Blues in ‘Farmer Jack’s Tree’ that is poor genius…
Now most bands you might worry a little bit if they had a section of five songs under the heading of ‘Experiment’, and with The Treat this could be multiplied by one hundred. However, ‘Citizen Of The World’ eases us in with a Black Sabbath-esque riff on an acoustic guitar and bongos and vocals that sound a little like Iron Maiden without the warble. ‘The Art Of Deception’ is a 60’s Rock/Pop song with an acoustic guitar and a kazoo, making for a trippy-little number. ‘Fan The Flames’ is a great track that is part Rhythm & Blues, and part Funk found in a bar in 1970’s Manhattan. Beautifully arranged it’s a surprising but refreshing track. Then we have a song that quite frankly is a waste of time for me in, ‘Little Fly’ that might have been funny at the time, but just gets monotonous far too quickly, with little music other than a stringed instrument making fly noises, and… well, I’ll just concentrate on the other tracks here! The last song ‘In My Own Time’ brings in the use of all of the instruments that Mike and buddies have acquired with hints of Mexican brass and a whole host of other percussion. A complex but nice song to finish!
As a whole, the album is a mixed bag, but then you would expect this. The ‘Electric’ side is my favourite with 4 or the 5 tracks making onto the album if I had to halve this to a more modest 10 track offering, however there are possibly 2 in each of the others that are very strong, and the only weak track here is the awful, ‘Little Fly’. The Treat like to try something different, and with each offering you are never disappointed. As optimistic as a double album is, this is an enjoyable CD. It would’ve been easy to pick out 12 strong tracks here and forget the rest, but then it would’ve changed the whole of what this album is about. Wholesome and innocently entertaining, it maybe that The Treat are slowly gaining the musical recognition that they truly deserve. Good work again, lads!