The Treehouse

Ore EP

Written by: PP on 14/01/2011 03:19:43

Admittedly, I'm far away from my usual realms of coverage with indie/folk outfit The Treehouse, but this just goes a long way in proving what I discovered about music a long time ago: every genre has its formulaic crap, but if you scratch underneath the surface you'll find the real gems; there's good music in every genre. "Ore" EP, as the five track debut by this Lincoln, UK, outfit is titled, features two seemingly opposite approaches to songwriting converging in the middle: catchy songwriting, and artistic ambition.

You see, at heart, The Treehouse is a singer-songwriter type of project, with minimalistic instrumentation, relying on a lot of traditional instruments like piano, and acoustic guitar to pursue an artistic ambition. Lots of projects like these are niche only, attracting only the hardcore group of listeners who choose to listen to nothing else but singer-songwriter type of stuff, but The Treehouse add enough accessible melody and enjoyable tunes to convince even a non-believer like me. They start off with "Not A Home", which comes across as a really mellow Frank Turner song, if it wasn't for the soft female vocals. That's because the male vocalist, who shares about 40% of the vocal duties on the EP, has almost certainly drawn inspiration from Mr Turner at some point, though he's much less aggressive and poignant in comparison. The other songs, however, proceed on a much quieter format, relying on classical piano backing ("Corinne") or just gentle, mood-oriented instrumentation in general ("What's Up Now?") and that sort of thing.

It's all rather minimalistic as I mentioned, but the singing is very much the key aspect about the ep. Both the male and female vocals are excellent, capable of coming up with memorable verses and choruses despite the indie/folk/singer-songwriter overlay present at all times. This makes "Ore" EP more accessible, and in my ears, more enjoyable than so many of their peers in comparison. Perhaps it's not spectacular, but thumbs up from here nonetheless.

7

Download: Not A Home, Corinne
For the fans of: Damien Rice, mellow Frank Turner, singer-songwriters
Listen: Myspace

Release date September 2010
Self-Released

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