Paisley Tree are a new German quartet consisting of Magic Petra on vocals and Bluesharp, Tobias Reinhardt on guitar, David Forrester on bass, and Christian Jager on drums. The album came to me via Jager who is also the drummer in Space Debris.
Like Space Debris, Paisley Tree are heavily 70s influenced but quite different, being more of a Psychedelic and, at times, even Punk influenced Hard Rock band. The music is very song oriented, with tracks being mostly in the 4-5 minute range, so any sense of jamming occurs within the context of tightly controlled instrumental fills, though this still affords the musicians plenty of opportunities to show their chops. This is guitar/bass/drums heavy rock with well composed songs and Petra is an energetic singer who blows a mean Blues harp.
Paisley Tree come roaring full bore out of the starting gate with Cosmic Flow, which zig zags between speedy thrash, Clash-like Punk rhythms, and Acid-Psych Hard Rock with wah’d guitar and Blues harmonica. Mystical Journey combines cool grooving funky Psych inflected Hard Rock with hip shakin’ Blues swagger, good time Rock ‘n’ Roll and catchy melodic riffs. Silent Darkness features melodic Stoner infused Hard Psych Rock with a cool acid stinging guitar solo and brief wailing harmonica. At nearly 7 minutes, Ramblings is the longest song of the set, being a chunky Metal tinged Rock ‘n’ Roll tune with a Stoner-Blues-Psych wrapper and a sense of acid laced cosmic drift. The main guitar riff on Shadow World reminds me of a Van Halen song, but the overall vibe is a nicely melodic Hard Rock number. Far Away has a melodic air of Country-Folk about it, though never strays too far from the band’s heavier rocking core, especially during the harmonica led dirty Blues segment. Colour Trip is a blend of fist pumping rousing rocker, funky dancey groove rocker and blazing Acid-Thrash Rock ‘n’ Roll. Sunflower Punk is a funky combination of Hard Psych Rock and something we might have heard on an old Rare Earth album. Killer guitar solo. And rounding out the set is a cool cover of the Pretty Things song Cries From The Midnight Circus, which features Tobias yet again taking off on guitar.
In summary, Paisley Tree serve up a set of well written songs, and play as a tight unit while managing to keep things sufficiently loose within their short and to the point compositions. A solid set of accessible and catchy heavy song oriented Psych, Blues and Rock ‘n’ Rolling Hard Rock.
Distribution for the CD and LP is through Green Brain at: http://green-brain-krautrock.de
Hear song samples at: https://soundcloud.com/paisleytree
Connect with Paisley Tree on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/Paisleytreeband
Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz