Tree Wave - Cabana

Tree Wave
Cabana EP
Made Up Records
Grade: A-

This is certainly one of the hippest indie electronic debuts of the past year. Coming out of Dallas, Tree Wave are the duo of Paul Slocum, who uses a plethora of electronic devices to produces dazzling displays, and Lauren Gray who provides the breathy and chic vocals on top. Since the duo claim to primarily rely on old computers and videogame systems of their sounds – e.g., Commodore 64, Atari 2600, dot matrix printer, etc. – their live show must smoke if they are able to pull these sounds off. The EP starts with off-blips and beats on “May Banners,” but soon comes around with transfixing synths and Gray’s vocals. Though I typically hate band-to-band comparisons, but “May Banners” and the EP in general comes across like a female-vocal laden and quirky Postal Service. And that is the grandest comparison I could make. “Machines Fall Apart” provides nice fuzzed bumping and sweet vocals from Gray, and goes after an up-tempo ambient atmosphere. “Sleep” follows suit, but with a heavier reliance on beats and Gray comes across like St. Etienne. After the video game fun of “Instrumental 1b,” “Morning Coffee Hymn” slides in with an array of intertwining electronics. “Same” is more aggressive on the distortion end, though is a bit of a misstep from the others. The EP closes on “Commodore 64 Data Track,” where you can apparently bring up the program on your own C64 – as if you have one. The CD also includes a multi-screen video for “Sleep” and Atari war games video for the song “Combat.” Again, this EP from Tree Wave is one of those rare gems that appear in the mailbox only once in a blue moon.