Following their debut 4-track EP “Slow” at the end of last year, Finnish guitar rock five-piece based out of Helsinki, TREEMER, formerly known as 90s indie band The Pansies, comprised of Mia Keurulainen (vocals), Marko Haikonen (guitar), Sam Shingler (guitar & vocals), Tommi Lehtonen (drums) and Joakim Schonert (bass), have just released the new single/video “Syllable Sky” on Soft Monsters.
The new song marks a slight stylistic change from the ethereal shoegazing and guitar fuzz of the band’s previous releases, towards an alternative rock path, inspired by groups such as R.E.M. and early Radiohead.
Grungy reverb-laden guitar melodies rush in an abrasive haze, while high strings hypnotically pierce the sinuous snare of low rhythmic basslines alit in light tapping drum beats to build an inebriated, distorted atmosphere of apprehensive discomfort, as fearfully anxious female vocals express both the agony and the ecstasy exhausted helpless overcome by the restless weight of distortion. noisy guitar fuzz, hypnotic rhythms, obscured words.
Hopeful, humble lyrics overcome the trauma, bondage, and codependency imposed and fostered by a society of predictable fear.
The grainy, foggy, overcast video depicts an ordinary drive along a highway landscape smeared in dancing headlights, shaky photography, and an unfocused face framed in platinum blond set against an alternating background of a bent, smashed, and shattered car corpse, instilling a sense of impending doom and fear into the alluring suspense.
Tension builds through a dark tunnel illuminated in the eerie glow of directionless green arrows and blurred lines of red brake lights enveloping the scene in claustrophobia, while engaging the recollective curiosity of the wreckage and what the future might hold. A violent ending encompassing the empowerment set forth in the lyrical theme of “one’s right to carry out dreams and make independent choices, regardless of what other people think” shifts the plot into a psychological mind trip shocker!
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Photography by David O’Weger (@owegophoto)
