Some of you may recognise the Settlefish name from Deep Elm’s Emo Diaries sampler where they have featured just the once, and although the ten tracks they have produced for ‘Dance a While, Upset’ are accomplished and tidy, at times they just seem to leave you feeling a little flat. Hailing from Italy with a Canadian singer, their music flows with melodic turns of tempo and whiney guitars which feature in nearly all of the ten tracks, which span over 50 minutes.
There is no denying that Settlefish have a musical vision and in the most part they seem to realise it well, and this is certainly an album for that Indie-Emo kid in your midst, but it is certainly not for all. Most songs take a while to get into action although when they do, for the most part they are produced well with some superb drumming and vocals from frontman Jonathan Clancy, but unfortunately episodes like this are too rare.
‘Breeze’ opens the album complete with a slow strumming bass line and vocalist Clancy showing strong gruff vocals on a competent opener. ‘Blindfold the Leaves’ is a more than able follow up, continuing the pace where the last ended but the first weakness of the album is seen on the uninspiring ‘On symmetry pebbles’ which tries so hard to be some sort of epic but just prolongs the agony for a hearty 7 minutes and 43 seconds. ‘Camouflage Iris’ is similarly monotone in nature, although the build up to the finale of the song is rather marvellous. ‘The beauty that corrodes’ is another that starts slowly and progresses to a noisy finale.
‘Measures can divide’ is another standout, with the strong instrumental sections leading the song over upbeat drums and simple guitar riffs, which echo throughout the four minutes and is probably the best effort of the album. ‘Pilot’ and ‘Scream at Horizons’ are both refreshingly full of energy before the album wraps up with the catchy ‘Artificial Synapse’ and the finale with ten-minute long ‘Northern Town‘, which concludes the album well.
In all fairness there is nothing wrong with Settlefish, they have produced an album that is refined and brimming with ideas. Some of the instrumental parts of tracks and the musical ideas work well together, and they are definitely a talented bunch of individuals. The first half of the album is undoubtedly weaker than the second, but Settlefish certainly have a bright future in the world of Emo, with an album that won’t make too many waves, but will certainly hold its own when compared to others. Their future looks bright.
Jay