Non-Prog Album Reviews

Band: Swimfail (Canada, 2006-2009)

Swimfail was a Canadian project by Josiah Tobin. During its lifespan, he released 4 full length albums and two EPs, as well as an EP of scrapped material from an album that he hoped to write at some point in the future. The album's future is now in doubt, as after the release of his 2009 album, "Vermin", Josiah announced that he was ending the Swimfail project. He intends to continue making music in the future, but if he does, it will be under a different moniker.

As Josiah is the sole studio member of the band, some of the instruments are synthesized. Josiah himself plays drums, keyboards, guitar and bass. To describe the bands music would be difficult because there is a high amount of variety between the albums. Borerer, the 2006 release, was an entirely ambient soundscape. Self Centered Tales from the Project that Failed, Vermin, and Extreme Disappointment are both more industrial in their approach. Happily Destroyed EP was another ambient album, yet sounds completely different than Borerer. Lastly, Invisible Stray was an acoustic album.

Album: Extreme Disappointment (2008)

The Truth: Josiah Tobin is a friend of mine. When a friend sends you music, you listen to it once or twice, give them some feedback, and potentially never return to it. Swimfail was a different animal for me. Borerer caught my ear with "Dead Fans Don't Stand Still (Channel Song)", but it was with his second album (Self-Centered Tales From the Project That Failed) that Josiah converted me from a friend to a fan.

When Extreme Disappointment came out, I must admit to largescale excitement on my behalf, and also a bit of trepidation (this was, after all, his first full length since Self-Centered and I was concerned it wouldn't be as good). I had no need to worry, for Extreme Disappointment quickly became my favorite Swimfail album, and has refused to give up that position since.

Of all the Swimfail albums, this is the one with the most cohesive concept. Not only that, but the concept is actually quite interesting and exceedingly well done in its implementation. The concept is simple: Extreme Disappointment is an album about how a band, Swimfail, released an album, Extreme Disappointment, that was critically panned as Extremely Disappointing. But the love that Josiah put into this album doesn't end there. The album is 13 songs long, but interspersed between these 13 songs are 8 other tracks called "ED1-8". Each of these are actually about the story around the album.

To exemplify the disappointingness of the album, imaginary reviews of the album explaining how poor it is are interspersed within. But Josiah's sense of humour goes further than that - the reviews are self referential! One even says, "Josiah Tobin, the sole studio member of the one personproject, has fallen under fire from a good number of critics who seem to think that the albums name is all too appropriate, citing everything from perceived production issues to the pompousness with which the between song interludes are conducted." This humour and execution is truly excellent.

The concept doesn't end there. In fact, the concept continues to both before and after the album, with the introduction of a "villain" character - a voice that appears during some of the songs, criticizing Josiah for the methods he used and the way he structured the songs. The villain shows up first in "Fauxpas" - although that's not entirely true. in ED4, we get to hear what is presumably the person who played the villain character in a phone conversation with Josiah, where he is being told his role in the album. In ED8, the last track on the album, we even get treated to an interview between the villain's player and a female journalist, during which the actor himself actually complains about how he didn't entirely agree with the way the album was done (and even complains about the absurdity of there being an interview with the villain's voice actor at the end of the album!). As if this weren't enough of a mind-messing experience, the villain is also self-referential. In his first appearance, he criticizes Josiah for "writing in that villain buff theme to tell you off", and later in the album, he again criticizes Josiah this time for "using his own voice for everything" (for, other than the journalist at the end, every voice on the album is Josiah's own.

The villain can be, like the reviews, hilarious, but there's more to it to. Beyond the humor apparent in these characters, it also reveals a lof of the insecurities that artists go through when they release their art. Will they be criticized for the way they did things? Did they make it the best that they could? Will people like it, or will they be slammed for it? In Turqoise Shift, the last track, Josiah and the villain square off, and the villain complains to Josiah, "This is a good riff. You could have made a great song out of this. Why did you have to go and turned it into a half-assed rehash for our final confrontation, huh?", revealing yet another layer of insecurity in the artist. This additional openness makes the album a bit more open, and gives it that additional appeal.

Okay, so obviously, I really love the way that Josiah did the concept for this album. But a concept on its own does not a good album make. It requires good music to go along with it, and to be well integrated with the music. For an album that is about how terrible it is, Josiah could easily have written the worst music of his career and claimed it was "part of the project". But that would be too easy, and Josiah has too much care for what he does to hurt his art in such a way. 

The music for this album is mostly excellent, with some low points. The music is built mostly on industrial riffing guitars with programmed drums. The bass does make a few interesting appearances, most notably on "Frontman" and in the instrumental interlude of my favorite track on the album, "Another Angel". The vocals are mixed bag. Josiah makes use of cookie-monster vocals in some cases, but he also puts his voice out there in it's normal form as well. Normally I hate the cookie-monster vocals, and in some cases they do ruin the experience for me (I find "What Gives" to be almost unlistenable), but for the most part Josiah uses them in such a way that does not harm the music. 

When Josiah does sing, it works a lot better in my opinion. He has grown a lot more confident since Self-Centered Tales, and layers the vocals a lot less in this album. While his voice is not going to stun anyone, it is a case of it working very well within the music. And although Josiah does not have a huge vocal range, he is able to sing with varied tones to his voice, thus providing variety.

In terms of how well the music and the concept mesh, in this case it works quite well. The interludes do not seem to effect the flow of the album at all, and fit in quite naturally. Several of them overlay the music (some reviews, and occasionally the villain), but this works quite well, as they are talking ABOUT the music. I really love the way the album starts, as well. I know that Josiah is a fan of the game "Myst", so I imagine that the intro was somewhat inspired by the game - the way that the people in the books only seem to come through half the time before you find the pages to allow them to come through more clearly. Josiah speaks over fuzzy sounds and is cut off at various points in time. "You may feel a little disoriented on your first listening experience," Josiah warns. "This album contains unique shifts in reality that can have extremely unpredictable results on the universe contained within these recordings. You will know a reality shift has occurred when you hear this sound." (At this point, the sound plays, a reality shift occurs, and we are introduced to the first track off the album).

Okay, so I've made the point before that Josiah loves self referential humour. One last thing I'd like to point out is that he even manages to reference his bands name in the first real song, "Kid", with the line, "I know you swim, fail, and drown". Okay, not a happy line, but I also love self referential humour so it gets me every time.

As far as highlights go, the album has some strength up front, with the decent "Kid", the extremely catch "Meme", the slower and lower but amazing "FrontMan", and "Protector", but it is the second half of actual songs that I like best. Where the opening of the album is full of fast-paced, heavier tracks, by the second half Josiah has slowed down and toned it down a touch, which fits closer with my taste in music. "Hollow Pages" is an amazing track, with airy vocals and light guitars that have an almsot Space-rock feel. It is followed by my favorite track off the album, Another Angel, which features some of the most interesting lyrics on the album, as well as the most varied instrumentation. I would rate this as the "proggiest" part of the album, and I find the instrumental break i the middle of the song simple, yet hugely effective.

Wilkinson Road is an interesting track, with an underlying static sound providing a beat and nice guitars laid overtop. Overall, a really nice, simple little song with some nice clean guitar playing made a bit more unique by the unusual static sound that builds up nicely. This song sort of ties into the theme of the album too, as the singer begs, "Hey now, hey now, please don't run away - I have so many important things to say", a note about how an artist is trying to make a claim on the attention of their audience. 

ED7 shows the villain at his his most insane, before the laid back "Turqoise Shift" starts. (And although one of the "pompous-ass fake reviews" refers to it as "Avant-Gard noise experimentation", don't expect RIO/Avant prog ;) ). It is more along the lines of a clean guitar riff over more distorted instruments, with the villain and Josiah conversing about the quality of the album and the creative process. 

And yet, at the end, we even get a somewhat happy ending, when Josiah says to the villain, "Maybe people like me need to stop listening to voices like you." Maybe the artist shouldn't let all the possible insecurities that they have along the way effect their ability to release their art. But just when you think that you've found some great meaning behind the album, Josiah ends it with, "F**k the message" (to which the villain replies, "Is that it? Huh, okay").

Yet another one of my favorite non-prog albums. 

One last tidbit about the care Josiah put into every aspect of this album: If you check out the track listening, each track name is one letter longer than the one before it.

1. Kid

2. Meme

3. Bunny

4. Letter

5. Faux-Pas

6. Frontman

7. Protector

8. What Gives

9. Adumbration

10. Hollow Pages

11. Another Angel

12. Wilkinson Road

13. Turquoise Shift