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(Tinyfish's) previous two CD's have garnered excellent
reviews all over, not least here, so obviously we're all
chomping at the bit to hear their next full release. Meanwhile
to keep up all hooked they've thrown us this collection
of previous unreleased tracks gathered together under the
Curious Things moniker.***
"June Jar" starts us off in its pleasantly
uncomplicated way, with jangly guitars (courtesy of Jim
Sanders) over a simple drum beat from Simon Godfrey. It
picks up the pace in the last third when it veers off into
prog! If there was a typical Tinyfish song then this would
be it, but as there isn't, it's not.*** "Ack Ack"
is a short interlude reminiscent of the old Baboon Enquiries
bits that Jadis used to chuck in, but you do get to listen
to what I imagine is a scantily clad American beauty being
verbally abused by the Tinyfish scoundrels! No doubt led
by Robert Ramsey. Wonderful.***
"She's All I Want "is a three minute rumble
over a Beck inspired beat, punctuated by Space Invader effects
and general tomfoolery, which neatly runs into "Driving
All Night", a slow and mellow acoustic guitar led number.
"Why VHF?" the boys ask next, and it's an interesting
question. This track clocks in at a touch over 8 minutes,
meaning by Prog Law, it has to be called an "epic" though
it isn't, it's just a long song. It's a good song to boot,
verging on Madchester, post-rave come-down in places.***
The penultimate song is "Wrecking Ball" which
flows like a "serious" Stephen Lynch song and tells the
story of every relationship I've had. Except the ones that
were different. The album is wrapped up with the spicy "Cinnamon".
Ok it's not spicy at all, but a Peter Gabriel / XTC style
electro romp featuring Paul Worwood's bass pedals, that's
also slightly reminiscent of some of the RDF's early work.***
If you've already been converted to the "Way Of
The Fish" then you need to get this. If you're new
to the band then buy their bleeding album! Then buy this
too...***
Charlie
O'Mara of "Silhobbit"
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