Album Review: Treeboy & Arc - 'Natural Habitat'
Post-punk quintet debut with a gripping piece of fevered rapture.
Two years following the release of the greatly praised EP “Life Preserver”, Leeds post-punk five-piece Treeboy & Arc return with their debut full-length album. Originally coming to the forefront of the scene in 2019 through the iconic post-punk label Speedy Wunderground, the group has slowly formed a refined sound that resembles the classic greats like Gang of Four, whilst also combining a lot of modern elements from bands such as Squid, incorporating a lot of electronic elements as a canvas for the hectic guitars and the driving basslines.
Kicking off with “Midnight Mass”, the record delves straight into a hypnotizing arpeggiated sequence, quickly met by an equally mesmerising drum part which turns the groove into a frenzied piece of organised disarray. The song continues this crazed pattern with a series of moments where the instrumentation intensifies for very brief moments, a pattern of unpredictability that lingers throughout the album.
“Retirement” starts with a repeating bass part which creates a false sense of the groove, before the rhythm takes on a wildly unexpected venture. The song slowly descends into chaos as the lyrics accompany this feeling of mayhem with lines such as “The glass is half-full but my brain is nearly empty and there’s nothing I can do about it”.
Another highlight of this record is “False Objects”, one of the singles released earlier in the year. The rapid-fire guitar parts in the verse create an eerie sense of uneasiness, before the shimmering high-end synths in the chorus take the song into one of the more enchanting and tranquil places on the record.
The following “Character Building” takes a sarcastic voice on the “privilege” of living in the city, describing the day-to-day ignorance to the strain that commonly takes place in surviving in such environments. From the initial stance of “It’s such a privilege to live in the city”, the vocals slowly melt down until they reach a finale of renunciation, exclaiming “There’s nothing left for me in this city”.
All-in-all the mood set throughout this record is a unique sense of displeasure with the modern world, engulfed beautifully in the waves of madness of the instrumentation. With such an accomplished modern sound it is hard not to see Treeboy & Arc going a long way in the next few years, as the post-punk genre continues to grow an unwaveringly passionate fanbase.
Words by Jay Cohen
