I've heard that people who review music are failed musicians. This is not the case with Capillary Action, whose composer/music maker/sometime music critic Jonathan Pfeffer is known to masturbate frequently while listening to The Fucking Champs, Pinback, Thelonious Monk and The Red Light Sting. Pfeffer's ejaculation from these sessions created Fragments, a ten song affair between jazz, metal, ambience, rock, and other forms of experimentation. It'd be hard to find someone who couldn't enjoy at least one song on Fragments. The only downfall to that is Fragments covers so many bases that it's almost too much all over the place without a congruent theme to hold everything together. But for those who are sick of all the hype bands like Arcade Fire and Franz Ferdinand getting the spotlight when they aren't doing anything new, and for those with eclectic tastes in music, Fragments will be your new favorite album.
Like any other album, Fragments begins with the first track. Because there isn't any singing (besides a few samples and"vocal"seizures?), the story or theme to be told begins with "Ticking Ghosts Pt. 1" and its lulling guitar riff that invites any spectator to come closer. Seven seconds later the train we're riding fills with another guitar track, bass and Rhodes piano for a feeling of pure ecstasy. But stories are boring without conflict, and Capillary Action is aware of that. At 1:44 the train morphs into a giant robot-thunder machine and with a breakdown, and begins battling Zeus and his minions. And then at the height of battle we drift off to the next song.
Capillary Action in essence is a spectrum, a thermometer. One moment you'll be swooning on a lily pad to the soft sounds of twinkling pianos and gazing guitars. Then with a change of a track you'll be hanging from a thread in a volcano while all rhythm and melody explodes in your direction with metallic riffage that pulls you into the fire. Thankfully there is a lot of room in between these extremes in "Fragments", an eclectic explosion of experimentation in genre bending. Every song does something different and unique; "boring" and "predictable" are words that Family Feud would not use to describe this album. Besides the actual writing of music, this could also be attributed to the variety of instruments used: guitar, bass, drums, synthesizer, piano, organ, and Rhodes. Maybe next time Capillary Action will divulge us with some stringed instruments. And perhaps even some singing! Another thing I thoroughly I enjoyed were the harmonies and transitions between parts that worked very well. Such is the case in "Architecture Would Fail" (my favorite song), which starts with a really long hair metal head banging part. Then at 1:24 all metal dwindles and one single guitar comes in to let everybody know what the fuck is up. This semi-breakdown part continues to infiltrate further and further with a metalcore harmony over it and double bass blasting away. At 1:53 a sample tells us, "You got knocked the fuck out." Then for about ten seconds chaos ensues! Lots of guitar slides and noise. For the rest of the song we jump between metal and a glorious build up with piano that really drives us up the wall. This song is seven minutes of pure rockdom. I love it.
Next time what Capillary Action needs is for Jonathan Pfeffer to ejaculate more and have something to hold all the tracks/parts together. Take note, I've heard if you masturbate less frequently each time you ":O" the eruption blows a larger load. Besides that, Capillary Action shows a lot of promise as a shining upcoming indie (if you want to call them that) band in this world of recycled filth.
