CURIOUS THINGS

A new CD from Tinyfish - well actually, it's a collection of older, unreleased material and will do nicely to tide us over until the release of "The Big Red Spark". It has a more acoustic and electronic feel than the debut CD, with plenty of swirly sound effects - the excellent production is courtesy of Frost's Jem Godfrey (who, in case you didn't know, is the brother of Tinyfish main man Simon Godfrey).

Kicking off with The June Jar, we have some jangly guitars and some powerful drums from Simon Godfrey. There are a couple of stops which are disconcerting on first hearing, but this track has the feel of "Motorville" from the debut, as Simon himself admits, and also offers up a splendid chorus. A great way to start off.

"Ack Ack" is a snippet of conversation with an unknown American female and whilst on the surface is of little interest it is this kind of thing which, along with Rob Ramsay's spoken interludes, gives Tinyfish that extra "something" which sets them apart from other bands.

"She's All I Want" is a slightly poppy number with acoustic guitars and drum machines. I hope the band will forgive me if I say this reminds me of George Michael, but in a good way. This number manages to squeeze in a fish reference ("plenty more fish in the sea") and fish noises as well.

"Driving All Night" is a slower number with a memorable hook line, reminiscent of "All Hands Lost", and I can see this becoming a live favourite.

"Why VHF?" is the "epic" of the album, clocking in at over 8 minutes. Starting off with bubbly synth and drum machine, we are soon led into another splendid chorus. This is Simon's attempt to write a lyric "without meaning to see if anyone would fire back at me what they 'thought' it meant". Apparently a favourite from the band's old acoustic gigs, it does have a slightly spooky feel to it especially when it fades away before the drums kick it all back in again and a jazzy solo takes us to the end.

"Wrecking Ball" starts out like an acoustic version of Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again" but is actually about "Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy is alone again because he was an utter tit". Starting off gently acoustic, it picks up in the middle and goes a bit Alanis Morissette before returning to the gentle for the ending.

"Cinnamon" apparently teaches you the secret of magic, but only if you're already a magician. Er, thanks guys. A lot of effects on the vocals add an extra dimension to this song and it all gets a bit manic towards the end. A great ending to the CD.

It would be easy dismiss this as a short filler CD (it's less than 30 minutes) put out to keep us happy until the next CD, but this is quality stuff, far superior to most modern prog. A very highly recommended release from the UK's best band.

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