In recent years I have begun an interesting cycle. The zero-point of this cycle’s sine curve is every Amon Tobin release and the long dip below the axis is the interim time when I’ve drifted into much slower modes of electronica. I don’t always know it, but the absence of hip-hop adds to this down-tempo temptation, and my soul still craves beats to get my feet a-movin’ as well. This is not as all-or-nothing as it may sound; I always find some Deru or Retic or Lukid to shake my butt to. However, for a few fleeting moments, Skytree brings respite from the doldrums of slow drums with Windings of the Dragon Track.

The drums, indeed, are what I like best about this album. I guess I should say the drum programming and sample alignment, but you get the picture: Evan Snyder, aka Skytree, is highly skilled in layering beats. Not like a club DJ, but instead similar to Tobin's ability to throw an old jazz drum loop over some programmed rhythms and make beat beauty. Snyder wastes no time displaying these skills from the opener, “Solcatcher”. Even though I felt they sounded muddy and off-time on the first listen, a repeat go showed otherwise. Sweet poly-rhythms rejoice! This technique is utilized on almost every track, to varying levels of success and without boring the listener with the “same old trick,” at least most of the time.

Occasionally, this technique doesn’t serve well for hammering out a quality track. For example, on “Stone Standing”, the drum programming and layering is slightly dizzying, if not potentially nauseating. Snyder never suggests the ability or desire to settle into a groove on “Stone Standing,” which makes it easy to skip past as a peripheral track. Furthermore, it renders the name of the song ironic (or altogether too purposeful and calculated), because the track never stands in one place like a stone would, unless it were a schizophrenic stone that decided to ignore the laws of physics and perception.

The granite-like strength of this album is, incidentally, at its core. Not only in the rhythms (I also dig Snyder’s use of snare rolls in his programming at subtle, yet effective spots like “And of All the Elements, Water They Liked Best”), but in its "center" tracks. “Liquid of Decision", “Peyotero”, and “Horizon Rock” comprise a solid core that could master any pilates core-crunching class. In fact, coupled with the last track, “Sycamore of Ellicot”, these four tracks would make an impressive EP, one which would showcase more distinctly Snyder’s skill set. Aside from the rhythm mastery I’ve already gushed about, some other strengths surface. On “Liquid of Decision”, Snyder mixes in some excellent guitar playing that is reminiscent of Trifonic’s “Parks on Fire” in tenor, if not in style. This is not the only time Snyder plays guitar, but it is the most effective, restrained and communicative. In the last minute or so of “Liquid of Decision,” the guitar is very, well, decisive in its simple, classical statement. This melodic moderation is echoed in the album’s closer “Sycamore of Ellicot.” The drums are allowed to drive this vehicle without the synths and guitar constantly nagging them from the back seat on where to go. Instead, they nod their heads along in sunny tonics.

The subsequent bummer to hearing these four tracks is that the rest of the record is a bit of a letdown. Melodically, it is less than impressive (save for those four tracks!), which stands in the way of the drums. I guess it’s not that Snyder doesn’t know how to play a melodic line, but just that many of his, such as on the album opener, are flat and stereotypical. By stereotypical, I mean that they don’t stand out as original takes on the sometimes limited melodic scope of beat-driven music (at least within some templates!). He shows the ability in “Liquid of Decision” and its cohorts, but rests on the formulaic the rest of the time.

This contradiction in styles bunked up next to each other starts me to wondering. I wonder what the target audience is for this release, because the standout tracks seem to be more cerebral electronica, while the rest of the album is more fitting for the dance floor or desert rave.

-Gabriel Bogart