TINYFISH

According to the biographical information on their excellent website, this UK band is rooted in the late Seventies when school friends Simon Godfrey and Jim Sanders met each other ... at the age of five! Reading their very interesting and often funny story, you will understand why Tinyfish delivers such a varied and unique sound because they have an incredible musical background (under different names), ranging from a heavy metal love to a symphonic prog fascination, they were a cover band for a while and even support-act for the almost entire neo-prog scene (from Jadis and IQ to Galahad and The Geoff Mann Band). This year their eponymous debut-CD was released, what a pleasant musical experience!

During the first track Motorville I got the idea that Tinyfish was just another fine band scouting the borders between symphonic prog (atmospheres and vocal harmonies like Spock's Beard) and neo-prog (guitarwork in the vein of Pendragon) but soon I discovered that Tinyfish sounds quite unique and very alternating, a kind of 'musical chameleon': blues in Fly Like A Bird (dreamy with warm vocals and a very compelling guitar solo), swinging rock in God Eat God (fiery guitarplay), classical in Sundried (a string-section with viola, violin and cello) and ambient in the final piece Tinyfish (spacey guitar sound). My highlights are the two varied tracks Nine Months On Fire (captivating contrast between violin-Mellotron and wah-wah guitar and lots of strong musical ideas) and Too High For Low Company (great tension between sultry and heavy climates), these compositions proove the compositorial qualities of this very promising new band!

This is the debut CD from the self-styled "world's smallest prog rock band" and very good it is too. Starting off with some mysterious spoken words from Rob Ramsay ("I made my escape before the black, cold, dog noses could touch my thighs. I poured myself a drink for the suicidal into a chair and proceeded to twist the bottle's neck until I woke up in Ecuador with two pairs of pants and a big-boned nurse who said she had contacts. On the in-side, that is."), "Motorville" kicks in the album with a fine guitar riff over some nifty bass drum work from Simon Godfrey (the brother of Frost's Jem). "Fly like a bird" takes things down a notch or two and features a brilliant guitar solo. "Nine months on fire" picks things up again and is the start of a succession of excellent tracks that take us through to the Eleanor Rigby-like "Sundried", which reprises a theme from the chorus of the earlier "Too high for low company" (a song which shows off the talents of bass player Paul Worwood). The next track is the "epic" of the album - "All hands lost" at just over 12 minutes - which starts off slow but soon picks up the pace with some chunky guitar work. The album concludes with the eponymous title track, which is more of an ambient piece and winds down the CD gently.

The album contains a number of spoken word contributions from Rob Ramsay and he has managed to avoid the slightly cringe-inducing approach of early Moody Blues and his contributions definitely add something to the album. To my mind, they make the album reminiscent of the equally brilliant "Cerulean Blue" by Rain. The band's website contains useful background information on each song and this all helps to make the whole thing a more complete package.

All in all this album is up there with "Fear of a blank planet" as my favourite album of 2007 so far and there are a great many prog bands who would have liked their debut album to have been as good as this. At first listening it may seem like simple rock/pop, but repeated listenings bring out the subtleties in the instrumentation and particularly the vocal harmonies. I can hear bits of their quoted influences (King Crimson, Marillion, Tom Waits and some Porcupine Tree and Rush) but they have found their own sound here and it's a good one. I can't recommend this highly enough.

If you're seeking to swell your CD collection with yet another modern prog act, who bow down to the alter of the symphonic masters, then this is probably not for you. However, if you're looking for something fresh, powerful and original, this could be just the ticket. Numerous members of this London based five piece, first cut their teeth, in numerous shapes and guises in the neo hayday of the 80's. Despite this, the eponymous debut album from Tinyfish, plays through with an energy and enthusiam, more synonomous with artists in their mid to late 20's. To my mind this is high quality art rock, which arguably combines some of the commercial elements of 'Synchronicity' era Police, with the hard rock and intelligent, though down to Earth conceptualising of early 80's Rush. The band cites a long list of influences on their 'Myspace' page, ranging from The Cardiacs and XTC to Genesis and King Crimson, but Tinyfish have actually carved out their own signature sound, which only disreetly nods towards a few of these IMO. It's fair to say there is mild post Waters Floyd influence in the impressive slow melodic guitar playing from Simon Godfrey.

I was fortunate enough to have been leant a pre-mastered copy of the album, by the band, so I've had the best part of a year to get to grips with the songs. It's an impressive collection, and one of those albums where there are no duff tracks, no time wasters and no filler. This is quality art rock, by a band who know how to pen excellent vocal melodies, memorable riffs and intelligent lyrics. Keyboards are replaced by synth guitar, which serves to embellish the music, rather than dominate it.

A healthy balance is struck between the accessable hard rock of tracks like 'Too High for Low Company' 'God eat God' and the brilliant 'Motorville' and the more conceptual and lengthy 'All Hands Lost' and 'Nine Months on Fire'. The shorter tracks, with the right marketing machinary, and air play, would make excellent single releases and great adverts for the album. There are also fine passages of ambience which seem to combine the darkness of Radiohead with the beauty of Pink Floyd, this is notable in the outro title track, when Godfreys Gilmour-esque lead guitar really caught my attention. Like all good prog there is an undercurrent of melancholy in the music, especially in 'Fly Like a Bird' and 'All Hands Lost' and running through the whole album is, what can only be described as a sense of conspiracy and paranoia, which makes the whole package ever more seductive and intriguing. The songs are earnest, and dark in sentiment, but never depressing, and always heartfelt.

I look forward to seeing Tinyfish play live, and wish them a lengthy and prolific career. Excellent stuff, highly reccomended!

Tinyfish - Tinyfish

To be quite frank, when I first heard Tinyfish's music over on their MySpace page I felt a bit underwhelmed. From the few compositions available there, only the instrumental title track managed to captivate me instantly. So that was the only song I downloaded onto my hard drive. I did however notice that all these songs were still in their demo phases so I tried not to be totally dismissive towards the other songs, but I do admit they sort of lost my attention for quite some time.

Up until the moment that I got this message whether I wanted to have a remaining copy of their summer promo CD, which preceded the actual release of the debut album. And from that moment on they had my fullest attention. A couple of weeks later I received this promo and listened to it quite a few times and gradually began to like it more and more. That's when I decided to purchase the debut album earlier this year.

It is hardly unusual that it took some time to work its magic on me for it is a totally different kind of music than I normally listen to, being a fan of the more atmospheric and heavier side of music in general. Songs like the title track Tinyfish and the mini epic Nine Months on Fire show definite tendencies towards the progressive rock genre, but the majority of the songs on this debut album tend to be mainstream rock with bits of prog here and there. Still, that's what seems to appeal to quite a few people when it comes to this band; the music is still pretty interesting if you look at it from a prog listener's point of view, but it is also very melodic so it might appeal to people who otherwise wouldn't think twice about listening to something that could be classified as 'prog'.

I normally don't like to compare an artist to any other (related) artist, but here it's even more difficult. There's such a big variety when it comes to what's being played that it is hard to put one single genre or influence on this band. And that's what makes a difference in this realm of progressive artists: there are those who create progressive music and there are those who record prog music. I normally tend to like less of the latter, because that type of music includes quite a few artists who desperately try to sound like some 70s prog band, whereas I most of the time look upon artists that I consider to fall in the first category with a keen interest. For what is more interesting from a listeners point of view: something that's been done quite a few times before or something that sounds fresh and new, even if that only applies to what we're used to from that specific artist? Tinyfish definitely belong to that progressive category for they manage to merge different genres beautifully in order to get that typical 'Tinyfish' sound. Special mention for the incorporation of spoken words segments! Normally I tend to dislike narrations on albums with a few exceptions here and there, but on the few songs where it's featured they actually add something extra, most noticeably to me in the closing track Tinyfish.

Even though I think the music is excellent, especially this being only a debut album, the production sometimes lacks a bit I think. There are parts where I just don't really like the sound of the instruments, for instance in the opening song Motorville where I don't like the guitar sound, it sounds way too flat and cold, though this does not spoil listening to the performance, which is excellent. Odd enough there are also some other songs, including the rather short and string-driven Sundried and the Floyd like, with spoken word narrated, Tinyfish instrumental, that seem to be perfectly produced and do have that warm atmosphere I was looking for.

To round off I can say that in general this is a rather nice debut album, but I cannot help but feel that it sounds as if these five Londoners have far more in store than they present us with at this moment. Or in other words, what I'm saying is I most certainly am anticipating a follow-up to 'Tinyfish'!

(And come to Holland for once in the near future!)

Big album from a little fish....!

Stunning debut from London Prog band Tinyfish, I ordered the CD direct from the band's website, the musicianship and clean recording quality here is absolutely stunning and there are some excellent songs, my only real gripe is the use of some of those silly spoken dialogues - they sound so out of place and should be avoided in future, they do nothing for the music.

But to the actual songs, the first track "Motorville" kicks in with a very catchy riff and some excellent lead guitar and swirling organ, followed by "Fly Like a Bird", a slower song sounding similar to latter-day Wishbone Ash in style, a lovely song but the flow of the track is lost by the aforementioned talkover. My favourite track "Nine Months on Fire" is introduced by an eastern metallic sounding effect, a lush sounding ballad interspersed with staccato style guitar riffs, with a highly memorable chorus, I would say the Proggiest piece so far. "Too High for Low Company" has another very catchy rock riff alternating between a spooky bass line passage, the next track "All of the People All of the Time" contains a silly Rowan Atkinson sounding spoken dialogue which tells us "we are powerless to resist"......not so - I have my skip button handy, bringing us into the very beautiful "Build Your Own Enemy", a slow atmospheric song, followed by the up tempo "God Eat God" a clever song title which contains another very catchy guitar riff. "Sundried" is a chamber music version of the "Too High for Low Company" chorus using violin and cello, very effective use of a very catchy melody which works beautifully. "All Hands Lost" is another slow song which is a straight sounding ballad with a very memorable chorus, the melody in one of the lines "if I could see the moon shine as bright as day" sounds exactly like the line from the Genesis song "Fly on a Windshield" that goes "Blowing dust into my eyes, The dust settles on my skin" ...not a criticism guys, just an observation! The last track "Tinyfish" drifts in with a rather Floydian atmospheric guitar sound and tinkling ethereal backing, the spoken vocals work in this setting well but breaks off...completely.

Considering this is the debut album from the tiniest Prog band in the world it is brilliant achievement and the band will go far, there are some mainly brilliant moments, songs that you can sing in the bath, but they should leave the gimmicky bits behind - they could have a Prog masterpiece on their hands one day I'm sure. I look forward to seeing the band live soon as by all accounts they do an amazing show, the band is a welcome addition to PA and and this album an excellent addition to any Prog music collection!

Something hard I find when reviewing the crossover prog music due to - most of the time - it's hard to understand the proginess of the music. But with more music in this arena I finally get used to crossover music. It's also the case with Tinyfish where I got confused when I spun the album at the first time. I thought that this band has no identity because the music is quite different in style from one track to another.

"Motorville" (4:54) starts with spacey ambient narration until the narrator says "let's start get the work done" the music then kicks off nicely in upbeat tempo with neo progressive style. The vocal Simon Godfrey enters the music backed with organ and guitar fills in ambient mood. It's quite promising opening track. The way Simon sings reminds me to Pendragon's singer. "Fly Like A bird" (4:11) starts ambient with guitar fills followed by slow tempo music in the vein of Pink Floyd but in straight forward way. There is a narration with distant voice style in the middle of the track backed with nice keyboard work. Guitar solo that follows is in the vein of David Gilmour. I am sure you would enjoy this track especially when you turn the volume up - it's probably like enjoying Pink Floyd tune.

"Nine Months On Fire" (5:46) starts nice with ambient sound and guitar riffs followed by vocal line in relatively upbeat tempo using repeated guitar riffs and dynamic bass playing. There must have been some influence of progressive metal right here with this track as I can hear the guitar riffs even though in soft setting. The immediate acoustic guitar fills in the middle of the track makes this song interesting to enjoy. "Too High For Low Company" (4:15) brings another ambient nuance on the opening followed by bass playing and then a stream of music in pop style. Even though this is quite simple song but it's quite interesting. "Build Your Own Enemy" (5:16) is a mellow style song with acoustic guitar serves as main rhythm section augmented with long sustain keyboard sound. The electric guitar solo that accompanies vocal at the ending part of the song is nice.

"God Eat God" (3:12) is an upbeat music using riffs in pop style. "All Hands Lost " (12:26) is probably the most prog if I look at the duration. The music picks up slowly at the beginning where vocal sings accompanied by guitar. The guitar solo during interlude part is stunning even though there is nothing special with this track.

Overall, this is a good album from Tinyfish. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Folks noted my complete disappointment with Tinyfish's second work, and made a lot of comments to me to the effect of, "Well, Tinyfish must've changed then." Upon hearing the band's debut, I find it is indeed a completely different affair. This is a fine album- good progressive pop music without any of the pretentiousness. Not every track is a gem, but those that aren't consume very little time. And the centerpiece, "All Hands Lost," is a five star effort in and of itself. While my feelings about the band's second work haven't changed, I'm glad I didn't judge the group based on them, because this album is definitely worthy of attention. Check it out.

"Motorville" Following a strange spoken word introduction, Tinyfish explodes into action, kicking things off properly with a smooth and electrifying guitar solo. There are some tasty subtleties throughout, including gentle keyboards and some really cool light bass.

"Fly Like a Bird" Velvety guitar is the key instrument in this laidback song. It's a pretty good number, though not as ingenious as much of the other work.

"Nine Months on Fire" I adore the introduction to this, which is almost Oriental in a way, and then the band produces a fuller sound that's really interesting, especially with those strings in the background. It's a remarkably varied piece, with heavy hitting chords followed by more even passages. The smoky guitar work towards the conclusion is the gravy.

"Too High For Low Company" This song begins low key, with a nice vocal and soft-spoken clean guitar and some excellent bass. It is punctuated by grungy sections, however, and contains a strange bit of guitar (at least what I think is guitar) in the middle.

"All Of The People, All Of The Time" This terse track consists of a telephone call as spacey electronic music fades in (how's that for being on hold?). Though it's a bit corny, I give it points for including an excerpt from The Price is Right.

"Build Your Own Enemy" Having a slight Porcupine Tree sound (in the vein of the softer tracks on Lightbulb Sun), this song could have benefited from some more vocal harmonies I think, but regardless maintains my interest, keeping things steady with a deep bass and some light acoustic duty hanging out in the background.

"God Eat God" This short song, with its clever pun of a title, is not really to my liking, as it's more or less an unremarkable pop song, although it's certainly not unpleasant.

"Sundried" This change of pace has various strings and vocals- a real treat, I wish it were expanded upon.

"All Hands Lost" The highlight of the album begins with a charming guitar and bass- a striking introduction that piqued my interest immediately. It has a slight country tinge- one might be inclined to compare it to The Eagles. The whole song is awash with brilliance, from the powerful instrumental sections to the convincing vocal performances. It's a modern, hip track that takes no time at all to appreciate, yet will beg to be heard again and again.

"Tinyfish" So Tinyfish is a band, an album title, and a piece of music! This final work reminds me of "Brothers in Arms" by Dire Straits, especially with that gritty, bluesy electric guitar lead over the meditative, atmospheric background.

Pop-prog if you will from this South London outfit, who peddle a soft, affable neo-spin on the well-worn genre that doesn't win any prizes for originality but at the same time is by no means disposable. It's hardly ground-breaking, but 'TinyFish' does omit a fairly pleasant vibe through it's ten, thoughtfully-written and competently-executed tracks, with the breezy 'Motorville' adding steely guitars to the mix that hint towards a slightly harder-edged future once the pop quirks are all used up. Fans of Spock's Beard, Supertramp and Darwin's Radio should find enough to satisfy their curiosity, but in the end 'TinyFish' is a tad lightweight. STEFAN TURNER, LONDON, 2010

The roots of the London-based Tinyfish can be found in the 80's Neo Prog act Freefall, where Simon Godfrey, Jim Sanders and Paul Worwood, friends since their schooldays, performed together along with Simon's brother Jem.When Freefall fell apart in early-90's Jem became a famous producer and also formed Frost, while Simon Godfrey, Sanders and Worwood went on through various music projects and finally formed Tinyfish in 2004, marking a return to their prog roots.The trio along with Rob Ramsay and drummer Leon Camfield recorded their self-produced self-titled debut between 2005 and 2006, finally released on the independent label Lazy Gun Records in 2006.

''Tinyfish'' sounds very modern with the members nicely carrying the Freefall style in the new millenium and the album has obvious PINK FLOYD, SALEM HILL and SPOCK'S BEARD echoes.It is far from anything really complex or trully challenging, but this is more of an atmospheric Prog album with strong vocal content and a very clear production.The musicianship is based on short compositions, filled with expressive singing, somber guitar solos and constant changes between smoother and heavier passages with the guitars of Godfrey and Sanders as the leading instruments, trying this way to come up with various different atmospheres that make the ''Tinyfish'' listening a pleasant experience.Among these short tracks Tinyfish decided to put up their own prog show in the long ''All hands lost'', a tracks that defines the band's style, built around dramatic breaks, FLOYD-ian guitar solos, energetic grooves and an intense lyricism.

A brand new and fresh start for these British Prog veterans.Not very original and not even really adventurous, but ''Tinyfish'' is definitely an enjoyable prog debut by a group, which knows exactly how to write down some pretty music.Recommended.