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Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Review: Night Artery - Capsize Your Surroundings EP


Night Artery - Capsize Your Surroundings E.P.
2008, Cinematical Records

Melbourne, Australia's Night Artery is a story of personal perseverance: Personal because Night Artery is one man, Ross Arundale; Perseverance because it took Arundale time and lots of sledgehammer swings to find not only his true voice but also the means to get it out there. Spending two years working on the railway might seem like a romantic, adventurous life, but Arundale can tell you how hard the work is. His reward was enough money put away to buy all of the instruments and equipment he needed to build his own studio. Then he just needed a year to learn to play them all. Capsize Your Surroundings is not only the name of Arundale's first E.P. as Night Artery, but it also describes the way he's lived his life until now. If you don't like your circumstances, change them.

Capsize Your Surroundings opens with An Act Ill-Informed Of Returns, which starts with a gorgeous faux-orchestra moving into a mellow verse followed by an almost frenetic chorus. The song takes on a Progressive Rock bent as Arundale turns the song every which way on the way to the next verse. I really enjoyed this tune and can't seem to get it out of my head. Cinematic Shards On The Permanent Way is a jaunty rock song that again has some Prog leanings. The changes in song structure throughout make for highly interesting listening. Nerve Endings is more of a classic rock radio ballad in acoustic setting. It's extremely well written and performed. Glass Corners opens with riffs reminiscent of old Yes songs and turns into an almost U2-like grand ballad that falls into apoplectic Yes chord progressions at the end. Glass Corners is Arundale's most impassioned vocal performance on the album and is my personal favorite. The unlisted bonus track is a pretty two-and-a-half minute piano piece that deserves to be heard.

Night Artery is an unusual project. Ross Arundale is an extremely talented composer and performer. He's obviously very motivated to bring his music to the world, and its hard to see how he will not be a great success. Capsize Your Surroundings is a daring, brash and wonderfully successful debut. The mix of progressive leanings with almost classical compositional style and old-fashioned singer-songwriter balladeering makes for a wonderful combination. The only complaint along the way is the shortness of the album. We here at Wildy's World will be hoping for more from Night Artery soon.

Rating: 5 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Night Artery at www.myspace.com/nightartery or http://www.nightartery.com/, where you can purchase a copy of the Capsize Your Surroundings EP. Downloads are available through iTunes.

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