Perfume Tree

Perfume Tree were originally a group of disc jockeys from Vancouver (Canada) who used to perform live shows at the border between Throbbing Gristle's industrial music, dub and hip hop. The core of Pete Lutwyche (samples, guitar, beats), Jane Tilley (vocals, guitar) and Bruce Turpin (mix, samples) got together in 1991 and coined the moniker Perfume Tree. Bell Jar, on the cassette album Dust (Zulu, 1992), and the EP Remote (Zulu, 1993) established their credentials, expanding gradually from a "rockier" song format to a "freer" trance-oriented format that also borrows from hip hop...

Bell Jar, on the cassette album Dust (Zulu, 1992), and the EP Remote (Zulu, 1993) established their credentials, expanding gradually from a "rockier" song format to a "freer" trance-oriented format that also borrows from hip hop, dub and electronica. The album delivers an ultra-atmospheric pop (sort of Cocteau Twins' dream-pop stretched into ambient territory like Dead Can Dance could do and adorned with psychedelic overtones a' la Sky Cries Mary).

The Sun's Running Out (Zulu, 1994) and the EP Fathom The Sky (1995) enhanced the ethereal quality of their music, with cryptic vocals floating over shoegazing wails of guitars, floating dub bass lines, clouds of keyboard effects and hypnotic funky beats.

That style achieved an almost baroque intensity on A Lifetime Away (Zulu, 1995), derivative of Bjork's quirky pop with a touch of Enya's atmospheric world-music.

Feeler (World Domination, 1997) leverages on the grooves, borrowing from drum'n'bass (Flooded) and dub (Warm Sun Fingers). The highlight is the percussive experiment of Too Early Too Late, also in the direction of a more danceable sound.

Perfume Tree broke up in December of 1999. Pete Lutwyche and Jane Tilley went on to form Veloce with Ian MacLachlan.