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!)

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