Tree 63 - Voyage

Voyage is free from spiritual navel-gazing, gang vocals and campfire-choruses and is actually just a lot of fun to listen to

Voyage

Tree 63  

Label: Just Music

10 tracks / 41:20

Well, this was a refreshing, pleasant surprise! Voyage, the new project by South African rockers Tree 63, is a call-back to the days when ‘Christian rock’ actually sounded like rock and roll. The opening track, “Turn For Home,” starts out sounding like a full-energy Switchfoot song and exits sounding a bit like early MuteMath. Of course, this could be the band putting their best foot forward – but “Ambush” continues, with a strong hook and the kind of energized playing, interesting changes, and memorable chorus that carry on for the rest of the album.

This lean, mean rocking machine features John Ellis on Sting-inspired vocals, guitar and piano, Deon Knipe on bass and background vocals, and Angus Warden on drums and background vocals. Definitely a rock band, the South African three-piece flirts with New Wave and Ska, with an occasional tip of the sonic hat to After The Fire. The songwriting is tight and hooky enough to get you singing along after the second listening. Warden’s drums are a delight – simple and potent, sometimes coming from left field, driving the songs with momentum along with Knipe’s bass. Ellis’ singing is passionate and expressive without being showy or indulgent in vocal calisthenics.

The overall sound of this music is crisp and sparse, almost post-punk but with style and sophistication. The songs are intelligent lyrically, and express the gospel clearly but poetically and without using generic Christianese. A song like “Ambush” suggests the resistance to God in battle-weary terms: “High walls where my heart used to be – I was standing guard with a sword and shield / With God as tame as I needed God to be”

Musically, the group is a breath of fresh air in an over-produced, too generic, overly safe ccm environment. Voyage is free from spiritual navel-gazing, gang vocals and campfire-choruses and is actually just a lot of fun to listen to. Half-way through the album, the spacy opening of the more ambitious “New Jerusalem” shows an almost sci-fi ambiance driven by a snaky bass-line and a hard-hitting drum performance – a bit of an experiment that, happily, went right. “Seeker” follows, also a little out of the box but still with that delightfully human sound.

“Believe Anyway” and “Still There” slow things down for a soft landing on the album’s final track. “Beatitude” is a simple, airy, spacy, somewhat haunting song that not only sounds like a closing prayer but actually feels like one. Less than three minutes long, the song – once it worms its way into your head – just might stay with you for hours. Especially if you’re on your own. It’s a fine benediction.

Tree 63 delivers a set of well written and well performed songs on Voyage – and the voyage you take as a result just might bring you to a simpler time and place where your faith was simple and as refreshing as a breath of fresh air in your lungs. No pretentiousness, no wailing solos, no breast-beating.

Just 10 good songs from Tree 63.

4  tocks

Bert Saraco

You can see Bert Saraco’s concert photography at: facebook.com/express.image