4 out of 5

Label: Forbidden Place Records

Produced by: Vantre

A trilogy of recording sessions across 2020 and 2021 produced Vantre’s ‘Treehopper’ – three songs from each session, rocking out on two basses and drums and no vocals.

Vantre initially appears to fit into a pretty standard mold of instrumental rock, doing a kind of Southern stomp mush that nibbles at hardcore, like Karma to Burn shaking hands with Keelhaul. The two basses can easily be mistaken for guitar and bass; it’s easy to kind of just nod along and not ask “who’s playing?” because you may have heard similar things before. However, the three sessions are key: the first set are those solid entries; hitting the riffs, rocking hard, and stopping / starting exactly where you want the song to to come back with a headbanging burst. In the next session, though, the group starts to experiment more, bringing in some Dub Trio-like breaks and pace slowdowns that expand the sonic palette, and add greater boogie and groove into the rock. And just as the group has proven how adept they are at this style, the third session gives us post rock structures, and elements of prog, and elements of kraut. It’s still rather deceivingly straightforward, but the group is sneaking in a ton of nuance that has, over the course of the album, helped to differentiate their sound significantly. After a few more listens, you can hear the spaces in which they’re adding that nuance more clearly – indeed, it actually does sound like Vantre from the start.

Treehopper is of a style of album that tends to be my favorite: I generally like it right from the outset – I’m a sucker for solid instrumental rock – but otherwise consider the album, as described above, “standard.” And then the more I listen to it… well, the more I listen to it. The fact that I’m down with spinning a record over and over again tells me something; soon enough, where once you heard all the bands Vantre was referencing, you then start to just hear the band themselves, delivering nine amazing rockers.