There are in all the various manifestations, whether individual or collective, of which the musician has been a part Tree Alone a common trail left by the footprints of the blues. Sometimes these may have been almost buried, for example as a result of the impetuous and resounding spirit of the punk-rock band Star Velvet Revolution; while in others, on the contrary, they emerged with clairvoyance supported by a spirited and forceful melting pot of influences, a definition perfectly applicable to the Downtown Losers project. There is no doubt that there is an innate desire in the Catalan composer for, in the manner or intensity that he requires at any given time, deposit a signature with a line attached to that genre.
If we confine ourselves to his most personal project, the one he signs with his own name and which with the current one accumulates three works, the presence of these sounds tends to be integrated together with a bouquet of various references that respond to a common family relationship, being all of them arms of what we could call the same family tree, the one that gathers around it antecedents and continuators of that original tradition. A whole lineage of rhythms that in his current work are combined and aligned with exquisite taste to, in addition to housing a varied and talented musical map, at the same time make up a story of photographs that reflect both the unstable and disturbed feeling and the need to make in front of that existential twilight.
Referring to what the global body of this album implies, it stands out especially for having found a much more organic and natural climate for its staging than in previous opportunities, which means that when it attacks moments where its warmer aspect is prioritized, bliss representation is especially intoxicating, obtaining on the contrary a stinging and raw effect when the thermometer oscillates towards much more electric and furious landscapes. A fluctuating emotional scale that results in a work marked by a diversity of environments capable of transmitting the faithful reflection of the particular beat with which each song progresses, sometimes tender and welcoming and other times angry. Like life itself.
An element of strong strength in the equation of rhythms that the album proposes is the high presence of the funk component, and not so much as a specific genre, but as an ingredient that provides a penetrating vibration to those compositions in which it appears. Hence the significance of a beginning as “Satisfaction”, an ode to recovering the “groove”, with all the symbolic meaning that it entails, escorted by sharp guitars a la Otis Rush that contrast with a falsetto interpretation, a vocal strategy always synonymous with delicacy. An aspect that is even more evident and rooted in “Sensations”, making its evocative and suggestive aspect, where it declares war on that state of cornering that so often hangs over the individual, an elegant accommodation between the margins of blaxploitation, which it can refer from Curtis Mayfield to Prince, or in the intimate “Nueva fe”, an explicit title in her break with old ways, dressed in the best finery equipped by Booker T. & The MG’s.
But let’s not forget at any time that this is an album, no matter how unorthodox and joyous for accumulating sensibilities that it feels, of blues, and that of course includes venerating certain gods of the six strings, like Jimi Hendrix, whom he will take to his more hard rocker extreme in an “Imágenes de luz” crowned by an epically melodic chorus or he will extol his figure through the beautiful “Haciendo mi propio estilo”, which could be classified as the particular “Little Wing” of the Catalan author. And there will still be room to increase the distortion levels in a title track with an arid sound, owned by ZZ Top, Hound Dog Taylor or even perfectly acceptable in the repertoire of past projects like the aforementioned Downtown Losers. A sound skeleton that could only lead us to that landscape that can be seen when you are hitting rock bottom. Nor will those wayward but endearing heirs of black sounds be excluded from the repertoire, call it rock and roll, suitable for its rogue language, derived equally from the Stones, Burning or Status Quo, to mark the stage as a liberating paradise in “Guitar Man”, or serve fast-paced, dynamic rhythm and blues bass a flammable plea like “The fire”.
Being music, or at least that which is worth taking in esteem, a faithful reflection of one’s own existence, it is logical that both are codified around the succession of new steps consisting of reinventing oneself as a way of opposing the pitfalls, without this implying, as far as possible, abandoning the very essence of what one aspires to be. In that sense, “Waiting for the sun to go down” It is a great way to keep the incorruptible DNA safe. “bluesero” which defines Tree Alone but knowing how to find a way to enlarge its resonance from meeting with other influences of natural understanding. Because never, and even less in these times, defying adversity has been about a possibility, but about an inherent necessity of the human being in his search to survive and be reborn stronger.