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AND ALSO THE TREES: Don't you forget us #1

What do you know about the underrated? And what do you know about Post-Punk? I know a lot about both, so I decided that I'll share some of that knowledge by counting down records of several noteworthy bands. So let your local Post-Punk archmaester lead you through the discography of some of the most criminally underrated bands in history of not just Post-Punk, but music in general. Welcome to my new series: Don't you forget us. Starting with: And Also the Trees are an Experimental Post-Punk band that has been at it since the early 80s and are now 15 albums in and still have barely a cult following.
15And Also The Trees
Silver Soul

"Shrills and trying to loosen the ends."

Their sonically most adventurous album that asks the question: What if we did everything they way we always do, but made it sound much more dizzying and earpiercing. Unfortunately, this is also the band at their most disorganised and directionless. The decision to add more electronics and spiked production on guitars may not be entirely bad, but is definitely not one that the band knew how to pull off. In the end, while there's definitely some fun to be had, this album just feels like a strange experimental detour that doesn't really know, which way it wants to go.

Go-to tracks: The Cyclone, Highway 4287
14And Also The Trees
Driftwood

"Ruminations and how I decided to meditate on all the distress the world has caused me."

One of AATT's distinguishable traits is their love for acoustic recreations of their own work (other notable instance is When the Rains Come, which will come later). Their music is definitely one of the most suitable ones for acoustic coverage, as is proven on this semi-live little endeavour. It even made songs from Silver Soul sound pleasant and kind. The only possible gripe one could possibly have with this compilation is that it feels a little out of place with the rest of their discography. Sure enough, it is a fine musical piece, but unlike its artistic sibling When the Rains Come, it doesn't exactly go far from being just an interesting acoustic randition of the band's work.

Go-to tracks: The Cyclone
13And Also The Trees
From Under the Hill

"First steps and before we knew how to adapt the torment to the sound."

Their most straight-forward album; one far from any experiments or risky moves; one that sees the band still very much in a full-on Post-Punk mood. There is not a whole lot to say about this, except that its atmospheric dissonance and thematic darkness makes it extremely soul-tearing and near schizophrenically dismal. Indeed, these songs would later go on to appear on the band's self-titled albu but hearing them in this initial demo quality brings a whole new layer of atmosphere to them.

Go-to track: The Tease the Tear
12And Also The Trees
When the Rains come

"Repurposing and what if I took a different path."

Even when they're making a Best of compilation, they have to do it differently. You won't find any note of this not being an original album anywhere online, but it is a collection of remastered and instrumentally and sonically rearranged songs from the past (now fully acoustic), but compiled into one wholly new musical experience, just like Driftwood. Except this time it has a compelling cohesive sound that isn't reminiscent of some live-performance and the flow of the songs is much more clrealy defined.

Go-to tracks: Fighting in a Lighthouse, The Street Organ, When the Rains Come
11And Also The Trees
Virus Meadow

"Nonchalancy and not everything deserves to be sung."

Virus Meadow delved into more of a nonchalant singing territory, but it is also a fully realised Post-Punk album with occasional off-the-wall vocal endeavours that only resemble spoken-word. Its raw energy and emotional torment is as thick as a proper Post-Punk album should have. The hard-to-digest vocals are as present as ever, the progressing musical passages and the electrifyingly detailed instrumentation and production leave the listener emotionally stunned.

Go-to tracks: Slow Pulse Boy, Gone Like the Swallows, Virus Meadow
10And Also The Trees
Farewell to the Shade

"Transition phase and how the journey was more important than the cause."

Up until this point in their career, And Also the Trees have been more true to the Post-Punk than not. Nevertheless, this album sees the band already copiously try out the techniques of that atmospheric beauty that would eventually go on to define their sound. While still staying on the heavily bass-driven and instrumentally lively and vocally crumbling, they already started venturing into the territory of levitating dream-like ambiance. The album's only major flaw is that it doesn't exactly balance those two right. It is either quite a standard Gothic Post-Punk album with some intriguing instrumental moves or an unrealised Experimental effort. But it is neither at the same time.

Go-to tracks: Prince Rupert, Ill Omen, The Harp
9And Also The Trees
Green Is The Sea

"Entropy and how I learned to numb my pain."

It is logical that after the more or less directionless attempts at reinventing their sound with Farewell to the Shade, the band would only pursue those goals. Green is the Sea marks the band's definitive transition into experimental territories. The band has ventured into some deeply ethereal lengths on here, basically abandoning all of their past Gothic influences. The songs have a certain darkness to them; they feel much more echoic and in despair; their flow, while not necessarily perfect, still manages to set a crushingly emotional tone.

Go-to tracks: The Fruit Room, Men of Absolute, Mermen of the Lea
8And Also The Trees
The Klaxon

"Sharpness and the easiest way in."

Vibrant, yet moody; instrumentally ecstatic, yet emotionally hurt; musically abstract, yet spiritually adventurous. Although already deep into experimental and emotional chagrin, this album might be their most accessible and easily digestible of all. It's a brooding, but simple affair. The band have found a sound they are comfortable with and will from now on be exploring further with nearly every release. It's a vital milestone for this ever evolving group, even though it can be overshadowed compositionally by some of their later work.

Go-to tracks: Sunrise, The Dutchman, The Flatlands
7And Also The Trees
And Also the Trees

"Traditionalism and how I first learned to love the sound unchanged."

The band's first effort and their most typical within the boundaries of Post-Punk. It is quite odd listening to this album and knowing just what depths the band ventures into decades later, abandoning this dizzying and rough affair near completely. Many would suggest that in comparison with the rest of their work, this is the most directionless and non-distinct of all of their work. And while it is true that on here their sound is yet to sprawl into something wholly original, people tend to forget that what we have here is a perfectly great Post-Punk album as is.

Go-to tracks: So This is Silence, Talk Without Words, Midnight Garden
6And Also The Trees
The Millpond Years

"Sentiment and how I could not hold my feelings in control."

Their most emotionally sprawling record. Still very much a Post-Punk album, but not yet reaching into the full-on experimental horizons. The years of the Millpond Years is AATT attempting to stay focused on the rather standard Post-Punk sound, while still exploring its boundaries. The off-the-wall strangeness is present, but only periodically and in particular songs. But outside of that, this is afairly straight forward album that is flowing and moving freely withing its genre's limits.

Go-to tracks: The Suffering of the Stream, Count Jeffrey, Shaletown, From the Silver Frost
5And Also The Trees
Hunter Not the Hunted

"Cold blood and what future holds."

Hunter Not the Hunted marks And Also the Trees' seemingly final stage of evolution. They have finally found their voice, the sound fully unique to them, that cold and chilling, but also gradually engrossing feeling of solitude that they'll later perfect on the follow-up record Born Into the Waves. This album is full of patience-testing, slow-moving and instrumentally sombre passages that only deepen the band's already clearly established tangling, shivering and vibrant sound.

Go-to tracks: Only, Bloodline, A Woman on the Estuary, Rip Ridge
4And Also The Trees
Further from the Truth

"Patience and going back to the roots."

After the strange (and thankfully no longer pursued) obscurity that was Silver Soul, the band decided to dial back on their reinventing and went back to their more usual sound, leaving organ-like synthesisers in the background, where they belong and keeping the already enticing instrumentals sparrowing in the forefront. They took their much needed break and released this album five years after Silver Soul. And for what it's worth, the break did well on them as this album is full of that menacing, yet blissful atmosphere I grew to love in AATT. It would only later turn out that this is just a transition point before they spiral their aesthetic into whole new grounds with The Rag and Bone Man.

Go-to tracks: 21 York Street, In My House, The Willow, The Untangled Man
3And Also The Trees
Angelfish

"Virtuoso and new ways of calming down."

As paradoxical as it might seem, this album sees And Also the Trees at their most gleeful. While still maintaining their ususal calm and quiet approach, the songwriting finesse sprung up into near heavenly heights. The instrumentation on here resembles near-bluesy sound and the much more abundant incorporation of horns, saxophone and more amplified, sharper guitars resulted in a sound reminiscent of some lounge rock. Thus although changing only the skeletal approach, the band managed to elevate their sound to whole new relaxing grounds and push the envelope of calm Post-Punk even further.

Go-to tracks: Brother Fear, Paradiso, The Lights of Phoenix, Missing
2And Also The Trees
Born Into The Waves

"Absolution and how I became one with the aether."

Quite possibly AATT's most realised effort in the direction of pure sophisticated atmospheric euphoria. This album explores all the ins and outs of a dream-like magentism, what with its moody instrumentation, stonecold vocal delivery and cold wintery atmosphere. There has hardly been an album as perfectly showcasing longing and cold isolation as this.

Go-to tracks: Your Guess, Winter Sea, The Sleepers, The Skeins of Love
1And Also The Trees
(Listen for) the Rag and Bone Man

"Darkness and how I overcame all the world's anguish."

And here we are; what it all was heading up towards. On this album the band has taken a step into every possible direction within their comfort zone of calm, instrumentally dense and atmospherically dark style they've been chasing their entire existence. There has hardly ever been an album encapsulating despair and poetic solitude as much as this. Just as the title suggests, this is an odyssey of a broken man wandering around the world digging for his and others' past. And Also the Trees are on their conceptual, compositional and instrumental high like never before and like nobody else ever again. It's beautiful, yet haunting; calm, yet in distress; nocturnal, yet hopeful; menacing, yet unwinding. It's a perfect And Also the Trees record.

Go-to tracks: Domed, The Beautiful Silence, Rive Droite, Stay Away From the Accordion Girl, A Man With a Drum, Under the Stars
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