Splinter effects

From Think Tree: El Dopa, Count Zero

by Mary A. Ricciardi

Sometimes important local bands break up and dissolve. And sometimes their various constituents resurface with redoubled creative energy. Case in point: legendary elektroniks Think Tree. Signed to Caroline, they seemed poised for greatness in the early '90s, with two radio hits, "Hire a Bird" and "Rattlesnake," not to mention an opening slot with Nine Inch Nails. But Think Tree sank in the wave of Nirvana-led grunge. Now, however, the Trees', uh, roots have taken hold and sprouted anew. Vocalist Peter Moore and MIDI maniac Krishna Venkatesh have been making serious headway with their latest respective projects, Count Zero and El Dopa.

Moore has found a number of outlets in the last few years, including roles in Boston Rock Opera's Crackpot Notion and Jesus Christ Superstar, plus Doug Thom's staging of Pink Floyd's The Wall. A one-off spoken-word project, Bongo Fury (featuring Think Tree guitarist Will Ragano and drummer Jeff Biegert), resulted in Lord Mongrel Is Dying, which was released through Moore's own SineApple Sap Records. His latest incarnation, Count Zero, is a five-piece hard-electrofunk outfit whose high-energy performances got them to the semifinals in this year's Rumble.

Their first CD, Affluenza (SineApple Sap), is a rich mix of the vicious guitar work that was Ragano's trademark in Think Tree, plus funk percussion (live and programmed), over- and underlaid samples, and Moore's emotive, otherworldly delivery. Each song is a springboard for his various personas and/or demons. There's an infectious dance groove afoot, especially on the hip-shaking call to arms "Generation," the dirty funk of "Motorcade," and the smirking, mock-Brit "Chaos," not to mention their Teutonic hip-hop rendition of Joni Mitchell's "Free Man in Paris."

"In Think Tree, we were much less concerned with remaining true to any one particular style or sound," Moore suggests. "We thought nothing of doing some cowpunk tune, then an Asian instrumental, or anything in between. I wanted things that way, and at the time I really liked that we were all over the place sonically. Later on, when I went back and listened to some Think Tree stuff, I realized that a lot of my favorite artists' records had more continuity to them. That though the songs were different from one another, there was a common idea or thread within the record as a whole. So that became something I wanted to explore in Count Zero. To have a more focused sound, within the variety."

Venkatesh's El Dopa rely more on guitars than on computers; the result carries a harder punch than Think Tree or Count Zero. "Peter had been writing some songs that were expressing discontent for society in the way I wanted to, but his music was more pop-oriented, more friendly, even," says Venkatesh. "I wanted the music itself to express the disgust and anger I felt. So we took a more aggressive tack, more brash and confrontational." Their self-distributed first CD, Hindu Freak Love (1995), was a bilious collection of sonic manipulations and rants. Their new United in States of Narcolepsy (Conscious) is even more ferocious. Venkatesh peppers each song with hoarsely rapped lyrics; they're propelled by the pounding drumwork of Danny Lee (formerly of Uzi and Cxema).

The two bands do share a powerful contempt for the status quo. Compare El Dopa's "Fittest Fight" ("Melting pot of shit/This system based on wealth and class is just another one of many in your book of lies") with Count Zero's "This Gadfly" ("Cause we're sick boys and/We've been poisoned/But by your standards/We're just fine/Especially when we make your grade"). Where Count Zero take a funkier approach, El Dopa go for aggro-rock, mixing the assault of, say, Skinny Puppy with the way-out weirdness of Parliament-Funkadelic. And where Count Zero use satiric humor as a weapon, El Dopa tend to go for the more blunt message: people are assholes.

"Part of the problem with Think Tree was that people didn't know how or what to classify us," says Venkatesh, "and so sometimes they tended to just avoid us. Now each of us is working in a more streamlined, maybe more definable way, but I don't feel that we've sold out at all. We're making the kind of music we want to make."

El Dopa play downstairs at the Middle East this Saturday, June 21. Call 497-0576.