Here's a new section where I'll look at a single track, whether it's one I've just
discovered, one I know well, a classic or one I consider to be criminally ignored, and I'll waffle on about it in my usual style. And the name I shall give this section shall be
Title: “All Hands Lost”
Artist: Tinyfish
Nationality: English
Year: 2006
Album: Tinyfish
Running time: 12:26
Subject: Shipwreck? Not sure; no lyric sheet available
Tinyfish are a band about whom I know little, though they seem to have something a lot of prog bands do not, which is a sense of humour, calling themselves “the world’s smallest prog band”, despite there being five of them, making them larger in terms of personnel than many I can name. Not that I mean all prog artists take themselves too seriously, but undoubtedly some do, a carryover from the over-indulgences and complacency, and, let’s face it, arrogance of their forebears from the seventies. I have not heard this, Tinyfish’s debut album, released now over fifteen years ago, nor indeed any of their others; they remain as one of the many many bands I have yet to experience through the medium of the album, and wait patiently on my hard disk until I get the time or have the inclination to sample them, but this track came up on a playlist and I was, I have to admit, damned impressed.
It’s a long one, as you can see, and goes through many changes, opening on a sort of acoustic ringing slow guitar line, the vocal of Simon Godfrey very pleasing in a sort of Big Big Train/Spock’s Beard way, guitars handled by he and co-founder Jim Sanders, and Tinyfish appear to be somewhat different in that I can’t see any mention of keyboards. In a prog band? Unheard of? Not quite, but certainly very unusual. They do use guitar synths, so maybe that’s how they get around the keyboard parts, or maybe they don’t care. The guitars in the opening section do make enough of a melody on their own, so perhaps they’re not needed. A pretty fine guitar solo in the fourth minute accompanied by powerful percussion from Paul Worwood and a fluting sound that I guess comes from the guitar synths.
Building up now in the sixth minute on the back of a really long-held vocal note and then another breakaway solo, though a short one, the melody now reminding me of Twelfth Night as it picks up speed. Everything slows down then in the seventh minute for a - well, I would say keyboard or synth part but I guess it must be guitar synth - kind of effect that puts me in mind of Pallas’ “Queen of the Deep” and the melody becomes more low-key and slower with a sort of Mike Oldfield idea in the electric guitar. Now heading into the ninth minute on a reflective guitar solo and the last three minutes seem to run out instrumentally, with a somewhat disconcerting sudden stop and loud guitar riff then fading out.
I will admit, on second listen it’s not as great as I thought it was when I first heard it, but it’s still a pretty decent song and for the length of it, really doesn’t flag or lose my interest. The ending could be better but overall it’s a pointer to check out this largely ignored band and see what else they have in their locker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58QoKfUUE94