Delay Trees

If there's one thing the Finnish dream-pop band Delay Trees shares with its Scandinavian counterparts, it's a flair for the theatrical build: for letting the shimmering and hypnotic bloom into the stormy and anthemic. Still, the group isn't one to meander or pad its songs with long interludes. The 10 tracks on Delay Trees' recent self-titled full-length are models of concision, each stuffing a Sigur Ros epic's worth of buildup into four or so minutes at a time. The result is chiming, charming pop that blooms briskly and brightly, recalling the alluring sparkle of late-'80s Britpop as much as any contemporary group of Nordic weirdos.

There's not a misfire on Delay Trees, but the album opens on a particularly elegant note with "Gold," a heart-swelling ballad which dresses a few vague lyrical sketches ("Gold, come in / Take over and lift up my arms") in alluring grandeur. Rami Vierula's words aren't always terribly linear — they're more about setting a vague tone of discontented yearning — but the gleaming sonic cathedrals his band erects behind him more than compensate. - NPR

Bewertung: 11/12

Dass nicht nur krachender Metal und düsterer Gothic aus Finnland stammen, sondern die Nordlichter auch durchaus sanftere Töne anstimmen können, beweisen uns dieser Tage die Delay Trees. Keinesfalls verspätet, sondern genau passend zur düsteren Jahreszeit servieren uns die 4 aus Helsinki und dem nördlicher liegenden, idyllischen Hämeenlinna stammenden Jungs feinsten melancholischen Indiepop mit Gänsehautcharakter. Im Vorprogramm der aktuellen I Like Trains Tour konnte sich das hurricanebar-Team bereits schon von der Livequalität der Combo überzeugen, die keinen Abstrich zur vorliegenden Platte andeuten ließ. Live sowie auf Platte begeistern die Delay Trees mit ihren grandiosen Songs wie „Gold“ und der aktuellen Single „Cassette 2012“ durch sensible Lyrics, stabile Gitarrenwände und hymnische Melodien. Seit 2007 spielen Sänger Rami Vierula, Gitarrist Lauri Järvinen, Bassist Sami Korhonen und Schlagzeuger Onni Oikari nun schon zusammen und veröffentlichen dieser Tage ihr bereits 2008 eingespieltes Debüt „Delay Trees“ auch endlich hierzulande. Die 10 Tracks bezaubern auf Anhieb, sprechen sie doch musikalisch wie auch textlich aus unserer Seele. Als weiteren Höhepunkt dieser Platte haben wir uns neben den bereits erwähnten Songs auch in „Tarantula / Holding On“ verliebt, das sich langsam-spannungsaufbauend zum Höhepunkt hinarbeitet und nach 4 Minuten in ein hymnisches Klangbild mündet. Aber wir müssen gestehen: Die Platte ist durch und durch ein Knaller und stellt das erste von hoffentlich noch vielen kommenden Albumhighlights des Jahres 2011 dar. - Hurricanebar.de

Zwischen träumerischer Melancholie und triefendem Pathos liegt nur ein schmaler Grat, doch die Fallhöhe ist immens. Zumindest in der Popmusik. Ehe man es sich versieht, überschreitet man die imaginäre Grenze. Wo man eben noch leicht unschuldig und naiv zu Tränen rührt, verkrampft man im nächsten Moment und versinkt in einem Meer aus Kalkül und Kitsch. Siehe Coldplay, um nur ein Beispiel zu nennen. Delay Trees gleichnamiges Debüt weckt viele Erinnerungen an deren Erstlingsmeisterwerk „Parachutes“. Melancholisch, aber niemals wehleidig, bauen die vier Finnen ihre hypnotischen Soundlandschaften auf, lassen sie ihre Akkorde dahinschweben, ihre Instrumente weinen. Wenn Sänger Rami Vierula die langen skandinavischen Winter beklagt, zieht man unweigerlich die Mütze tiefer ins Gesicht. Wenn er über dahinsiechende Freundschaften sinniert, fröstelt einem vor Freude. Traumhaft schön! Und absolut sehenswert: Zurzeit sind die mit den britischen Postrockern I Like Trains auf Deutschlandtour. (jba) 8 von 10 Punkten - Focus.de

Delay Trees - Delay Trees Foto: Johanna Kustannus/Cargo Delay Trees - Delay Trees Ihre Debüt-EP „Soft Construction“ stieß 2009 nur auf sehr überschaubares Interesse. Mit dem ersten Album bringt das Quartett um Sänger und Gitarrist Rami Vierula aus Helsinki-Hämeenlinna jede Menge verträumter Melodien. Die Band versteht sich gut darauf, ihre meist sanft dahingleitenden Popsongs mit größter Unaufdringlichkeit und Nachhaltigkeit im Ohr zu verankern.

Als passender Vergleich fallen einem da erst einmal die frühen Feelies ein, die mit ähnlich subtilen Mitteln eine vergleichbar große Wirkung erzielten. Es ist schon beeindruckend, wie es Delay Trees in Songs wie „Tarantula/Holding On“ und „Quarantine“ schaffen, eine völlig entspannte Atmosphäre herbeizuzaubern. Die Songs der Finnen laden geradewegs dazu ein, sich dem Müßiggang hinzugeben, ohne jedes schlechte Gewissen.

Mit ihrem gerad­linigen Dreampop schließt die Band zwar sicherlich keine besonders große Markt­lücke, aber vergleicht man ihr Debütalbum mit dem Output weitaus etablierterer und zu Unrecht deutlich mehr gehypter Bands, dann schneidet Delay Trees, nicht zuletzt wegen wundervoller Songs wie „Whales & Colors“, die sogar eine gewisse Vorliebe für die Vocalakrobatik der Beach Boys erahnen lassen, mehr als nur achtbar ab.
- Musikexpress.

Atmospheric music has always been a type of filler and a source of ambiance for certain businesses who want to create an desired affect since the dawn of the soundtracks, or maybe earlier. But in Delay Trees’ debut self-titled album, the phrase ‘atmospheric’ gets redefined in a wholly different sense. Moody with an airy and echoing affect, Delay Trees’ first full-length project is anchored in a setting whose description entails wintry landscapes and ethereal washes from a bitter terrain. Originally hailed from Southern Finland, the members of Delay Trees were ushered together from a shared interest in penning songs about ephemeral relationships and the pressures of adulthood as well as through their love for constructing gorgeous melodies.

The hypnotic and dreamy tracks off Delay Trees are a different strain of pop music altogether. Perhaps their band name, which is a collective of aesthetics, will yield more meaning behind their understated sound. Meant to capture a sense of their homeland terrain, Delay Trees is a name taken straight from the bands’ love for reverb and forests. The memorable and melodic songs off this album also has a tendency to carry forth a blurry sense of mish-meshed effects. At times unusual and eerie, the results are like that of hearing a strange piece of music in the next room.

In “Light Pollution,” the 7th track to this album, listeners will get to really hone into the nostalgic messages being played out in nearly absurdly dramatic strokes throughout the later parts of the disc. The shared dream is being ruminated through vocalizations of the past and of a more innocent time where the stakes were higher and perhaps even heightened, making this compilation almost as epic as it is fleeting. Towards the next few consecutive tracks, “Tarantula/Holding On” and “Whales & Colors,” the timeless blend of rare and artful melodies unfold to reveal an impossibly innocent visage and child-like scope of things.

Delay Trees’ 10-track compilation is an album that surrenders to the scintillating landscape of the band members’ native terrain. Their resolute prerogative to absorb and project a visually and sonically stimulating natural sound-scape shapes this unique and unusual form of dreamy-pop music. Like the cover art to Delay Trees’ first full-length debut release, shapes, colors, and sound schemes make for an cohesive and artful representation of what this band is all about. - MV Remix

Delay Trees aren’t afraid to go big—we’re talking U2 big. Guitars shimmer and stretch, cymbals ripple outward, vocals echo just enough to give them some size. It’s an ambitious sound they crank out on their debut full-length, but it’s also a welcoming, approachable sound. Where the Edge keeps you at a distance with his sonic wall, these guys welcome you in. There’s space in these songs to feel them out, pull at their pieces and find deep melodies. The slow build of opener “Cold” eases us into this cool, glittering soundscape before “Cassette 2012” cuts through the atmosphere with a leaner chug. From there, the album moves through its dreamy songs at a deliberate pace. Nothing on the record feels rushed. Each swell of sound is given its time and space to fully grow. It all builds to the wonderfully tense closer “4:45”, which keeps you waiting for the band to break into theatric crashing. They never do. Instead, they churn on with their dream-pop sound. It may rely a bit too heavily on mid-tempo—there’s not a lot of pace-changers after “Cassette 2012”—but there is a subtle vitality to this sound that keeps it from going stale. It’s not easy to be both immediate and hazy, but Delay Trees combine the two poles nicely here. - Pop Matters

Delay Trees
Friendly Fire [05/10/2011]

By the way, which one's Pink? Delay Trees - a young Scandinavian quartet aptly named for their love of the forest and instrumental reverb effects - catch the eternally ethereal vibe of the above referenced Floyd (read your history books, kids) at the precise moment in time when the legendary Brits made their historic transition from Syd Barrett's band to David Gilmour and Roger Waters' vehicle for rock 'n' roll space travel. Singer / band-leader Rami Vierula certainly displays a penchant for pop song-craft - hence the Barrett comparison (his voice is somewhat similar too). However his nimble and wildly experimental band-mates; Sami Korhonen (bass/synth), Lauri Jarvinen (guitar/synth/backing vocals), and Onni Oikri have decidedly set the controls for the heart of the sun. The result is a brilliant debut album with one foot in the past and another in the future.

Anywhere you metaphorically drop the needle on this platter (Note to the record company - put this album out on vinyl!!!), you're likely to be transported to a mystical world of hypnotic melodies, somnambulant sound collages, and epic instrumental passages. Tracks such as "Gold" slowly gestate from a simple ballad to a cinematic tour-de-force as the lads kick-in on the second verse with Oikri bashing away whilst his pals maintain a druggy tempo. Vierula's voice is drenched in - you guessed it, reverb - for the buoyant, folksy "About Brothers" (Roger McGuinn could have used this one for Notorious Byrd Brothers). "Tarantula / Holding On" is another fine rocker outfitted with spacey effects and trippy interludes, which once again build into a grand finale.

Delay Trees have a classic rock album in them - but for now, do turn on to Delay Trees before the world finds out about them!

--Tom Semioli - Amplifier Magazine

All right, so here’s the pitch to anyone who was tuned in to modern rock when the scene first started coming together (that would be the late ’80s, in case you weren’t sure): “Cassette 2012,” the new single by Finnish quartet Delay Trees, is the best song the Ocean Blue never wrote.

And now, lets put that into context for anyone who was born after 1982.

The Ocean Blue were a alt-pop band out of Hershey, Penn. They released their debut album in late 1989 on Sire Records — back when, you know, the label you signed to made a very clear statement about what kind of band you were — and they quickly became darlings of MTV’s late-night modern rock show “120 Minutes.” Their songs were dreamy, jangly, and melodic beyond words. Singer David Schelzel’s low tenor was quite airy (possibly a precursor to the breathy Manchester bands a year or so later), and the musicianship was tight. Their self-titled first record remains a late ’80s alt-rock gem.

And “Cassette 2012? sounds just like that album.

The rest of their self-titled debut isn’t quite the dead ringer for the Ocean Blue, but it’s in the ballpark. Atmospheric arrangements, songs steeped in melody…it’s damn good. It doesn’t stand a chance of storming the charts on this side of the pond, but ten bucks says this will make a few soundtrack supervisors very, very happy. - Eat, Sleep, Drink Music (ESDMUSIC.COM)

Delay Trees’ self-titled album is the best DCFC album that Ben Gibbard didn’t write. It’s put out by four Finns, proving once more that Scandinavians are just cooler and better than you.

The resemblance is eerie at first: Rami Vierula’s easy-going, high-pitched keen echoes Gibbard’s, while the band’s dreamy soundscapes within indie-pop structures call up comparisons to both “The Photo Album” and “Codes and Keys.”

But the aesthetic distance that Pitchfork blasted in their review of “Codes” and I noted in passing is not present here. These songs sound grounded and intimate, despite their tightly constructed arrangements. Delay Trees’ greatest accomplishment is the fact that the appealing little cottage somehow contains a mansion inside it without losing the perks of either.

It helps that the melodies are immediate and Velcro-lined. The group bakes the cake and then melts candy bars on top of it. “About Brothers” has a beautiful “whoa-oh” section that is only trumped by the shiver-inducing one in “Tarantula/Holding On.” You know when bands try to force epic things into otherwise normal songs? That’s not what Delay Trees is about. They painstakingly build their tunes, and the payoffs are all the more great because of it (“Whales and Colors,” “In February”).

But they pass the pop-song test as well: I woke up this morning with the verse melody from “Cassette 2012” in my head. It’s an incredibly pleasant way to wake up.

Delay Trees has constructed a beautiful album that should not be missed by those who love indie pop or the mellowed side of indie rock. I foresee myself spinning this many more times this year, as it is at least equal, if not better than Death Cab’s latest. —Stephen Carradini - Oklahoma Gazette

About Brothers part of 'the videos of the week' - Stereogum

About Brothers featured as the video of the day at Spinner - Spinner

Finnish quartet, Delay Trees have recently released their self-titled album, out on Friendly Fire Recordings. Creating soundscapes of dream pop and lush melodies, the band leads a hypnotic trend with this FILTER Premiere of the single "Tarantula/Holding On".

Soft and steady soft riffs and a solid beat give this track momentum, carrying voice with a subtle sweet tone in the lead singer's tone. The song itself has a good spirit, and is suitable for any summer playlist. - Filter Magazine

Who: Delay Trees, a four-piece out of Finland that makes dreamy, sweeping, shoegazey pop. Frontman Rami Vierula has one of those earnest, instantly likeable guy-next-door voices the Nords do so well (like Sondre Lerche) and the slow-burning tunes are consistently anchored in melody.

After putting out an EP in 2009 (Soft Construction), the band is set to release their proper debut, a self-titled full length May 10 on Friendly Fire Recordings. Check out the James Martin-directed video for the download track below, as well as Teemu Erämaa’s magical video for “About Brothers,” which started out as a short film about his brother, 3D animator Tomi Erämaa.

Reminds us of: Mew, Sigur Ros - NBC New York

“Whether they choose to play for American, British, or Finnish audiences, their serenely melodic interpretation of indie-pop is fulfilling enough to achieve success wherever the four-piece chooses to take it."
The whole review here: http://obscuresound.com/?p=2895 - Obscure Sound.Com / Mike Mineo

"Indie pop quartet Delay Trees from Helsinki self-release Soft Construction is one of the best debut records I’ve heard this year. Soft Construction is expansive, putting a minimalist spin on dreampop, creating serenely melodic, melancholic pop uniquely their own. "

The whole review here: http://www.recorddept.com/?p=826 - Record Dept.Com / J.Felton

"Delay Trees manages to tenderly melt the ears right off of your head and then surgically reattach them (being all smart and stuff)."

The whole review here:
http://www.airandseabattle.com/2009/04/06/delay-trees-soft-construction-ep/ - Air&SeaBattle.Com / Jason