Reviews of Under the Big Tree:
Upon hearing just the first five minutes of this release I knew my ears were to be in for a different listening treat.
"Under The Big Tree" is based on a true life experience which was then composed and set to music by Nick Peck.
The story tells of Nick's visit to a retreat in New Mexico, of the shamanic journey he had during meditation and of the experience of finding the "Universal Inner Self". After the experience Nick wrote notes and then spent 3 years putting that discovery into recorded form.
The musical elements that unfold during the story involve progressive and most definitely psychedelic and hallucinogenic styles. Nick Peck and the dozen other musical friends who helped with the project have captured Nick's vision beautifully. Some of the instruments used include "chunky" Hammond organ, grand piano, the "faithful" mellotron, trippy flowing guitar playing as well as flute, bamboo flute, sitar & cello. Some of the vocals remind me of the "Wooden Ships" quality of CSN&Y.
Finally we see musicians from the USA striking out and creating original music.
Richard Stockwell
Cranium Music
Summary of history:
From the home of the American Now comes Nick Peck with his Under The Big Tree.
The album:
The artwork is certainly based on the titles of the tracks (or was it the other way around). The Proloque opens with piano and continues with marchlike rhythms (a bit freer than that though) and brimming Hammond.Then we come to the vocal part introducing the concept story, which comes from a "journey" Nick Peck made while being deeply relaxed. Based on the what he saw in his vision he wrote the music and the lyrics. Because of the flute, the latter part of this track reminds a bit of Jethro Tull. The intro to Mouths And Frogs is a low bass sound (at least that's what I think) and after a slow continuation of this intro we come to the relaxed vocal part, when the singer has entered the dreamworld. The vocals are doubled on this track sometimes sung, sometimes almost spoken. The song has some very nice instrumental passages with lots of things happening and sounds appearing from under the rug. The song also has a jazzy component with the rather free form keyboard solo. One of the guitar parts remind me very much of Twelfth Night. The song also has a large psychedelic component, which is not strange in view of the lyrics. Writer In A Rainstorm is a rather powerful track that likens somewhat to Spock's Beard and contains some guitar references to Genesis as well. A rather poppy track this, but the melody is nice. I'm not fond of the rather directionless instrumental intermezzo. The improvised The Teepee Morgue has spoken vocals with soft piano and laid back percussion. The song does in fact sound like an improvisation with a large guitar component and is essentially psychedelic. Into The Opera House is ballad track of a friendly kind with piano, cello and flute. A bit of a longing track that turns out to become quite dynamic in the end, but ends on the ballad note. The next vision is of Mars with again very nice melodies and good mood changes. Plenty of musical changes as well and off-beat rhythms to spare. Next up is the hazy Boulder And Cactus with sitar and vague vocals.
Thereafter we get to a rather typical progressive rock song with an accessible melody and lots of Hammond in the middle part. The vocalization is quite nice with non-obvious vocal melodies and rhythms and percolating guitar playing. Animals play a central role in The Candle Card Game, although it seems they were treated beforehand. Portrait/Bow In The Cabin is a powerful instrumental with nice riffs and audible basswork after which we get an all-out seventies keyboardsolo a la early Camel and Genesis. Lovers of old prog with love this. The track continues well with rather complicated and tensionbuilding percussives and guitarwork. Impressive track. Where Do We Connect? is somewhat more normal with organ and rather accessible vocal parts comparable to World Turtle (more progressive though). A bit of a vague track with a psychedelic edge, but again rather straightforward vocal stuff. The longest track is the closer Into The Trunk: soothing vocals, good melodies and nice mood changes and closing down in a rather complicated way with various instruments playing almost unawares of the other. Comparable to busy Italian progressive.
Conclusion:
On the whole I hear a liking to Camel (and that is not just the flute) and also some early Genesis, but in an American way with vocals that are better than those of Camel (but still not excellent, especially the lower regions) Also part of the music is a slight jazzy (due to Camel I guess), but also a psychedelic component that is also reflected in the lyrics. Nice compositions and melodies are easily recognizable after just one listening. Essentially a band that both uses elements from the Seventies and a songbased approach to music. My fave parts are the ones in which the band leaves the friendly path and introduces some tension into the music. Least fave track is the improvisation The Teepee Morgue.
Jurriaan Hage
Nick Peck's Biography:
Nick is a San Francisco Bay Area native. He began piano lessons at 8.
Peck spent his teenage years exploring pop music, and began writing
his own compositions at 18. He began playing in progressive rock bands
while in college. Starting in the late 80's, Peck fronted the Marin
County-based prog rock group Episode for about a decade, recording two
albums and gigging regionally. Peck continued his formal training in
electronic music, receiving a BA from San Francisco State University
and MFA from Mills College in Oakland, California. During that period,
he focused on composing serious 20th century electronic music,
particularly using modular analog synthesizers, analog tape, and field
recordings.
In the mid-nineties, Peck recorded a big, sprawling epic progressive
rock album called Under the Big Tree. The creation of this album
marked a shift of focus from structured music to more improvisational
techniques. He then co-founded the jamband Ten Ton Chicken. Though
Peck had been playing Hammond organ since he was a teenager, it was
during this period that the organ really became his primary
instrument. After five years, 150 gigs, and two albums with the band,
Peck left to focus on jazz. Six months later, he formed the Mill
Valley Jazz Collective, a soul jazz group.
In 2004, Peck formed Sycamore Park, a funk/jazz band which recorded
and gigged around the Bay Area for a couple of years. His most recent
project is an album of acid and soul jazz compositions entitled "Fire
Trucks I Have Known", which was released in September 2007. As of this
writing, Peck is rehearsing up a new band, the Nick Peck Organ Trio,
to gig in support of the album.
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