TINY FRAGMENTS

Tangled Thoughts of Leaving are an Australian band that are still on the rise and apparently honing their style. I got a gracious request from the band to check out their EP as apparently they will have a full album release in 2011. TINY FRAGMENTS shows us a band well versed in the modern realm of post rock, but working to expand the boundaries by adding jazz, metal elements, and an accelerated sense of movement. One of my least favorite parts of post rock (and post metal) is that despite a great sense of atmosphere, there just isn't enough happening. TToL really have fixed this issue, and their sound is more likely to appeal to prog fans in general while using the sonic palette of post- styles.

The final track of the EP, "The Banshee" is superficially the most true to genre. However, the piece evolves relatively quickly into an area that would best be described as a kind of heavy fusion. The drums are especially jazz-y, but there are also fusion elements heard in chord choice and piano lines. The piece eventually becomes quite heavy with fast, aggressive crashes that are probably found nowhere else in the genre. When the piece drops in intensity, there is still alot going on, and you get the feeling that the drummer is about to burst while playing straight beats. He's quickly let loose again and the intensity rises, but so does the complexity to the point where we're almost in the realm of avant-jazz. If that sounds a little scattered, it's because the band does lose their focus at times. On the mentioned track, everything gels well enough, and in fact I think "The Banshee" is the best part of the EP.

The rest of the album is the three part "Tiny Fragments." The overall sound is similar to what I've described, with the limits stretched further into different genres. Harsh vocals enter at one point, and there are sections that border on straight jazz. The piece (and the album) opens with something that I might call brutal fusion, and weaves in small interludes of piano jazz. Needless to say, this isn't music for a pop fan or even most symphonic proggies. The juxtapositions are certainly stark, but most of the time they work. There are other bands doing heavy jazz fusion, but none seem as deliberate or composed. This suits me fine as I'm not a big fan of recorded jamming. Here we get carefully crafted frameworks that still allow the players freedom to explore.

A few of the multitude of pieces / parts don't work. The vocals in part I of the long piece don't do much for me, though I suppose they fit crazy music like this better than some genres. Part 2 consists partly of a free time electronic interlude which eventually withdraws to accompany come gentle piano. Part 3 returns to the band's base sound (post-rock over amphetaminized jazz drums) with a number of variations. After wandering a bit, the piece finishes with a heavy crash. While still solid (a kind of punch drunk take on the post- sound), this section is the weakest on the EP.

The overall moving force of this band seems very promising. Their goal of whetting my appetite for their upcoming album is easily met. I do hope the band has consolidated their sound a little better, and has a more unified vision for the album as a whole. But this is a great start, a very enjoyable listen. It sits somewhere between 3 and 4 stars overall, but given its short length and the fact that I'm hoping better is on its way, I'm leaving some room for improvement.

Cheers to the band.

P.S. This album is a free download from the band's site as of Jan 2011. Easy to check it out if you're into these kinds of sounds.

The name of this band is pretty cool, weird but I like it, I believe it is very original and would like to know what its origin is. Well, they are from Australia, yet another post-rock band which is actually walking their first footsteps, trying to find an own sound and of course, trying to gain some followers. Tangled Thoughts of Leaving have been together since 2004, they are mostly an instrumental band that as I previously said belongs to the post-rock realm, but at their heaviest, being closer to post-metal.

In 2008 they released their EP entitled 'Tiny Fragments' which is their first offering, a four- track EP that shares almost half-an-hour of great, heavy, weird, post-metal-jazz-rock music (haha with the labels). The first three tracks are simply entitled 'Tiny Fragments: Part 1, 2 and 3'. Well, the first part starts quirky, fast and with a notable technique. The piano sound is excellent all over the track, it gives the different texture and moods, of course the other instruments also help, but in my opinion here piano leads. At half the song it becomes heavier, guitars, bass and drums doing their work. After five minutes vocals appear, which was a surprise because I did not expect them; the voice is heavy, totally to the metal side of rock.

'Part 2' is the shortest of the tiny fragments (pun intended), and my least favorite without a doubt. The first minute is full of electronic distant noises, then piano and drums appear and it is like a soft jam, nothing more. 'Part 3' on the other hand, reaches almost nine minutes. It starts slowly but gradually progresses, the guitars sound here is wonderful, and the piano leads once again for some passages. This track has several inner changes, subdivisions that create a puzzle but that can be appreciated as individual fragments. The heavy or metal part is not that evident at least in the first six minutes, it reminds me a bit to 65daysofstatic, which belongs to the heavy-side of post-rock, without being precisely a post- metal band. But later, in the final two minutes the song does turn heavier and metal oriented. Great one!

The EP finishes with 'The Banshee' which is actually the longest song reaching more than ten minutes. It is a well crafted composition that may interest you and may catch your attention since the first moments. It is soft and heavy, jazzy in moments (mainly due to drums and piano), metal in others, but after all an original post-rock composition. Here we can appreciate the band's compositional skills, their creativity to extract all the juice of a single track.

I am happy with this discovery, Tangled Thoughts of Leaving are a worth listening band, and guess what, they offer their music for free, so please, go to their site and do not miss this chance. Now I am looking forward to hear a full-length album. My final grade will be three stars!

Enjoy it!

Tangled Thoughts of Leaving's maiden voyage is an interesting origin story - there are sounds on this release that would never really reappear on the band's later work, but also within is an unmistakable blueprint for the sound they would later develop. In my opinion, these guys are the absolutely pinnacle of modern instrumental post-rock, and are one of the most creative acts in the world in any genre. This EP is notable, because it's not instrumental, and for a lot of it, it's not rock - savage bursts of prog metal riffing punctuate the band's post-driven aura with frequency never heard later on. But despite this, the incredibly creative use of piano, avant-prog structures and modern classical composition with in a post- rock framework is definitely here early on. Not quite as refined as their later masterpieces, but an interesting addition to a great catalogue.

7.3 (5th listen)

Part of my listening diary from my facebook music blog - www.facebook.com/TheExoskeletalJunction