Tree is a musician who has always defined himself and his music on being impossible to define. Over the past few years, Oliver Nickell has built up an incredible amount of music with collaborations from the homie Beat Culture to fellow Californian bro Shelf Nunny. Each time Nickell put out a new track it was exciting to hear where he was decided to go and what he had experimented with on the track. ”Tully” had Tree spit some Beastie Boys inspired rapping, “Warrior” breaks down with a gameboy constructed solo and “Universal” had Tree making universe sized self-affirming declarations. Prepping for his EP debut on Apollo Records (a subsidiary of the legendary R&S Records) Nickell has created a compilation LP of sorts that collects most of his releases into a coherent listen. Listening to Tree in an album context makes it more apparent how cohesive and concentrated the vision of his music is. Although the stylistic jumps between some of the songs make the release seem like a mixtape, Tree works with a consistent sound approach using mostly organically made sounds and samples from things he found lying around. The entire album is under 30 minutes and could not have me more excited for his upcoming EP. Nickell is undoubtedly an alien born musical genius who was sent to earth with the mission of spreading truth, positive vibes and good feelings… so listen to Splitting Branches. Also read our interview with him.
Download Splitting Branches
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