"Fragments" One-Sheet:
Multi-instrumentalist and Philadelphia native Jonathan Pfeffer composed and recorded roughly a dozen songs over the course of 2002 and 2003. At the tail end of 2003, Jonathan got the chance to officially commit the demos he'd been working on to tape after meeting budding recording engineer Kevin Alexander at Ohio's Oberlin College. Throughout the winter of 2003-2004, the duo held recording sessions in various classrooms around campus and editing sessions in their dorm rooms, during which they tracked most of the instruments with a little help from drummer Jeff Cristiani and keyboardist Sam Krulewitch. By the end of February, these 10 songs had finally been captured for posterity.
After letting Georgian mastering engineer Jimmy Ether work his magic, Jonathan burned copies of the finished product to pass along to friends, family, musicians, industry figures, and just about anyone else he came across. Bizarre comparisons abounded, ranging from Judas Priest to Todd Rundgren to Hella to The Beach Boys to Faust to Thelonious Monk to Yes to just about everything in between. No one could agree on what "Fragments" sounded like, but they all agreed that it sounded good. Despite such acclaim, Jonathan didn't find any luck generating interest from labels. (Enclosing threatening letters with the CD-R's probably didn't help matters much.) Undaunted, Jonathan eventually started his own imprint, Pangaea Recordings, to release the record.
Drawing from his own experience as a culturally fragmented individual, the experience of writing the songs that would eventually constitute the record (each tune was composed part by part, then pieced together during the demo process), the process by which these songs were recorded (all the instruments were recorded individually, then pieced together during the editing process) and the different styles and structures of the songs themselves, Jonathan settled on the only title that seemed to make sense: "Fragments". Yes, the music is just as fragmented as the title implies, but the juxtapositions never sound like round pegs forced into square holes. "Fragments" isn't merely an intellectual exercise; it's a direct transmission from Jonathan's brain to your stereo. These songs flow with an ease that betrays the presence of a strong and singular vision. Somebody's got to save instrumental rock from the pedants --- and Jonathan just might be the man for the job.
Live band:
Jonathan Pfeffer- Guitar
Spencer Russell- Bass
Stephan Alessi- Guitar
Ricardo Lagomasino- Drums
Sam Krulewitch- Keyboards
Capillary Action sounds like the product of a restless but focused mind. Ethereal, pleasant passages narrow into trance-inducing loops before opening up into sonic squalls. The music pulls you in, lulls you into a false sense of security, then smashes you over the head. In a good way.
- Alan Paul, Guitar World
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.
- Zed, Scene Point Blank.com
The amazing part about this record is that every song is top notch and written of the highest quality. The jazz solos are that of a veteran, the metal riffs rival Iommi's genius, the song layers revel that of Amon Duul II. It shows an amazing maturity and production values, seeing as how it was recorded by a roommate, mixed over a phone by some other guy, and self-released.
- Jesse Raub, Punknews.org
A lot of reviewers complain that there are too many bands doing this sort of thing, but few do it with the restless, pursuant drive of Capillary Action. He is to be commended for his refusal to rest on feckless Slint-refiltering...This is a flailing, impossible to pin down album. It's the sound of a musician plowing through prog, metal, post-rock and jazz influences with a reckless, unnervingly swerving abandon.
- willcoma, Tiny Mix Tapes.com
Capillary Action's Fragments is a fine disc for indie music geeks to congregate around and collectively pick apart. It's also an album capable of making any so-called critic saucy enough to review it seem like a confused and babbling nitwit (yes, um..."seem"). Fragments is a fun album to listen to and a hard album to describe with any real degree of clarity, because it combines such a wide array of influences without much assimilation. This isn't the standard Neutral Milk Hotel meets Neil Young affair. This isn't Belle & Sebastian meets Sonic Youth. This is a whole lot of distinct styles that don't really "meet" at all, but somehow come together in a way that makes a fairly cohesive album.
- Brian Holm, 30 Music.com
'Fragments' is a refreshing patchwork of influences which are completely unapologetic in their juxtaposition and performance. In fact there are parts which are downright uncomfortable to listen to but given the choice between bland easy listening and truly innovative work like this there really is only one winner.
- Shane Blanchard, Tasty Fanzine.org
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'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.
- Andrew Haak, Geekburger.com
See, I don't really know what Capillary Action sounds like. And neither does anyone else. I know you're looking for the one-term overarching genre description to help you catalogue and file Capillary Action away but you're not going to get one. The band embraces everything from early '80s British Metal, to Brazilian pop, to spazz punk, to alt-country, to Need New Body's brand of jazzy post-modern anarchy. So far, every review of Fragments has referred to them in completely different terms.
- Exadore, Born Backwards.com
Having recently reacquainted myself with my metal youth, the arrival of Capillary Action's debut album came as a rather welcome surprise. Although somewhat scattered in realisation, its ambitous nature and the fact that it manages to jump between so many of guitar music's signposts makes it an experience that never fails to surprise, upset or just plain confuse...Not that Capillary Action is at all a journey in sentimentality or a blase retrospective, in fact it's quite the opposite - it's like some mythical tome containing tabs of all the great guitar moments has been shredded, tossed in the air and replayed as it falls to the ground.
- Dale Harrison, Cyclic Defrost.com
Check out the artist's website:
http://www.capillaryaction.netTrack List:
1. Ticking Ghosts, Pt. 1
2. Ticking Ghosts, Pt. 2
3. Constant Steady Collapse
4. Driving Through Twilight
5. Scattered Remnants
6. A Hundred Pages of Cannot Be Named
7. Mid-Coital Seizure
8. It Was a Typewriter
9. Architecture Would Fail
10. Pillars Disintegrate
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