The Mercury Tree: Difference between revisions

'''The Mercury Tree''' (sometimes referred to as '''Mercury Tree''' or '''TMT''')<ref>https://themercurytree.bandcamp.com/album/spidermilk  CTEBCM's mention of the band as:  ''„The new TMT formula is killer!”''</ref> is an experimental prog-rock band from Portland, Oregon, which composes and performs with microtonal tunings such as [[17edo]], [[34edo]], and others.

The band began as a solo project of [[Ben Spees|Benjamin Boyer Spees]] (commonly referred to as Ben Spees) in 2004. After Spees's earlier solo work under the alias "Electric Doormat", drummer [[wikipedia:Mike_Byrne_(drummer)|Mike Byrne]] of [[wikipedia:The_Smashing_Pumpkins|The Smashing Pumpkins]] discovered his music online and offered to contribute to the emerging band.<ref name=":2">[https://proglodytes.com/2019/02/13/interview-with-ben-spees-from-the-mercury-tree-with-exclusive-track-premiere/ Review of Ben Spees on Proglodytes.com]</ref>

 

Spees renewed The Mercury Tree in 2011 with Alan Johnson becoming the new official bassist of the band and Connor Reilly being the drummer, releasing their first studio album, ''Pterodactyls''. By 2012, during the production of ''Freeze in Phantom Form'', the lineup changed again with Aaron Clark taking over as bassist and contributing vocals. In subsequent years, The Mercury Tree collaborated with Red Forman on the ''Family Style EP'', and in 2014, Oliver Campbell joined as bassist and backing vocalist for the ''Countenance'' LP, whose involvement stemmed from a recommendation by Aaron Clark, who was retiring from the band<ref name=":0">[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdlMzkZRVVg Ben Spees interviewed on a Make Weird Music livestream about the Self Similar LP]</ref>.  

=== Related bands===

''[[Ventifacts]]'', microtonal folk songwriting duo between Ben Spees and [[Damon Waitkus]] from ''Jack O' The Clock,'' featuring Connor Reilly as the drummer and Oliver Campbell as the bassist who made his appearance on the tracks "Groaning Under the Evidence" and "Dog Day Music''"'', as well as Emily Packard playing the violin and viola, debuted with a self-titled full-length album in September. That album was followed by the ''Chronic Town'' EP from 2022, which featured all 3 members of the band and Waitkus himself.<ref>https://ventifacts.bandcamp.com/</ref>

The band's songs are characterized by the frequent usage of odd-time signatures, mixed meter, polyrhythms, polymeters, counterpoint and looping. Spees's vocals commonly have reverb and delay applied to them. Their microtonal music is mostly in [[17edo]], making use of [[Interval quality|neutral intervals]] and chromatic movement. The genres explored by TMT include prog-rock, math rock, psychedelic rock, avant-prog, post-prog. Most of their music features vocals, with some exceptions.

 

====2007-2009====

In this period of time, The Mercury Tree used electronic drums in songs like "Vacant Stares" and "Colorfalls" (''The Mercury Tree''), "Overflow" (''Eerie B-Sides'') and "Down the Pipe" (''Eerie EP''), akin to Spees's previous contributions for mac games' soundtracks, such as Deimos Rising<ref>[https://archive.org/details/deimos_rising_soundtrack/Diemos+Rising+Soundtrack/Deimos+Advertising.mp3 Archive of the Deimos Rising soundtrack]</ref>, as well as in his early 2000's solo project. Most of the songs for this period of time remained mostly alternative, with the occasional usage of mixed meter in tracks like "Lab Rat" (''The Mercury Tree'') and many of the songs on ''Eerie EP.'' An instrument present in the band's early works is the keyboard, which uses a specific piano timbre. On an interview with Thomas Hatton, Ben Spees said: "''I was very into the sonic side of using heavy effects and lots of layering to make elaborate, dense productions, and combining some idea of pop songwriting with odd time signatures and weird sounds''."<ref name=":2" />

 

 

 

 

 

The band showcased its most progressive release which wasn't exclusively microtonal in their album ''Permutations.'' The members were inspired by more avant-prog bands, as they were aiming for a weirder sound,<ref name=":1" /> by utilizing stranger [[Scale|scales]], time signatures and more advanced polyrhythms<ref name=":2" />. The musical evolution is most evident in "Exhume the Worst" and "Placeholder" which utilize the heavier aspect of Countenance, while displaying jazz-influenced harmony, especially in the latter. This release also contains the first fully microtonal Mercury Tree song, "Ether/Ore" which is in the [[Carlos Alpha|carlos alpha]] tuning, alongside prominent microtonality on "Symptoms" and "Permutations". This album represents a cornerstone for their rhythmic experimentation, with "Unintelligible" being a prime example.

====2018-present====

 

 

 

 

 

*''[[Spidermilk]]'' (2019)

*''[[Self Similar (album)|Self Similar]]'' (2023)