If These Trees Could Talk - The Hidden Hand

If These Trees Could Talk have delivered a troika of superb instrumental post-rock records (Above the Earth, Below the Sky; Red Forest; The Bones of a Dying World) but it has taken ten years for The Hidden Hand to foment. Musically, the band is often cited as having similar DNA to other post-rock luminaries such as Caspian, pg.lost or Red Sparrowes. Online there was much anticipation about this release and interest in the band is seemingly sustained despite the hiatus.

On first listen, the record has much that is familiar. The hazy introduction is almost like a grandiose Boards of Canada, before the post-rock pomposity of Moon Machine kicks in with its ozone layer arching hooks and airy noodling. The track then develops into an insistent, undulating nodding canter. If These Trees Could Talk have a knack for well-timed delays to create a sense of panorama as well as clever interplays and builds where solar flair clean arpeggios soar. They are at home in their signature sound and Sea of Glass could have been lifted from much of their previous releases with a trusted instrumental rock pattern of moody, reflective lulls and crystalline, triumphal swells. The production is lusher and richer this time. There is greater application of synth-like background effects the rockier, riffier fluorescence of the engrossing Blurry Creatures includes choir-like augmentation.

The Hidden Hand is an unhurried photosynthesis. Each track tends to develop meditatively with patience, perhaps unsurprising given there was almost a decade to accumulate ideas for this record. The studied, gradualist ascent of Silence Between Mountains Part 1 and Part 2 are sparce and spacious with a sense of wide-screen distance that rises exponentially into a thunderous crescendo of dramatic post-rock squall. There is an unexpected, and curious, cover of Aphex Twin’s Film; it sounds almost at home in the record with its understated, unthreatening twinkling of cheerful plucks and soothing, chirpy dissonance.

Despite the measured cadre of the record, The Hidden Hand avoids self-indulgence. After all, meditation is great for whoever practices it but is boring for an observer. A decade on, the hand have preserved their post-rock upper tier status and they still know how to deliver emotional, wordless heft.

Here is a bandcamp link: https://ifthesetreescouldtalk.bandcamp.com/album/if-these-trees-could-talk