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There's no clever irony behind the title of Capillary Action's debut full-length, Fragments. Each of the album's ten songs visits a musical territory that's both unexpected and different from that of its predecessor. It's a jumbled record, but the idea here was obviously not to create something with excellent pacing and an overall sense of momentum. In fact, at times, the music and transitions are goofy and awkward. Still, despite its broken-in-pieces nature, something keeps these Fragments from completely falling apart.
Although I can't quite put my finger on what strings the pieces of Fragments together -- it certainly isn't a solid basis in one style of music -- the consistent creativity, variety and unique textures all play a substantial role. Additionally, one can rarely predict what is to come, and Capillary Action's tendency to throw listeners for loops helps further solidify their shifty identity. There are unifying aspects to the instrumental album and, even though Fragments seemingly hits every musical style I could spontaneously rattle off the top of my head, its 43-minute duration is rather entertaining.
To illustrate how strange the flow of this album is, it's worth looking at the different songs. The opener, "Ticking Ghosts Pt. 1," is a quirky, jagged and lightly atmospheric delve into melodic indie rock. Its immediate follower, "Ticking Ghosts Pt. 2," isn't anything of a continuation, and instead sees Capillary Action employing metallic leads, piano key smashing, atmospheric interludes, and an outro complete with Euro-metal guitar riffs. It doesn't make much sense. The middle portion of the album is thoroughly relaxed and tends to favor jazz influences and a wide variety of instrumentation (especially on the Latin-tinged "A Hundred Pages Of Cannot Be Named"). "Architecture Would Fail" again shifts the direction of Fragments, bringing back the metal and even a fair amount of double bass kicks, blastbeats and guitar chugs.
The sheer variety of Fragments is even more surprising considering one person composed the ten songs. It takes skill to perform one style of music, but Capillary Action, who is primarily Jonathan Pfeffer (with the help of a guest drummer and keyboardist), does much more than that. The album was even produced in classrooms and dorm rooms, which gives it a natural, homemade flavor. It's a recipe that can't be exactly reproduced.
There's no brief way to capture in words everything going on on Fragments, but it's an album worth checking out -- as long as you're ready for a colorful journey through a weird, but generally well-performed array of musical styles.
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