brilliantfish

"What an astonishing first track! Truly gorgeous and enthralling. [His voice is] true and melodic: raw and gentle."

- RogrLee, musician/songwriter - indie

"There's more talent here than one could shake half a dozen fists at... Haunting and beautiful..."

- Xclaim! - Xclaim! magazine

“Pastpresentfuturetension”, so says the press-kit of brilliantfish. darwinsblackbox is an aggregate of angst and tension, of dark moods and catchy structures. The second release following the debut Sick, darwinsblackbox is stronger, more focused and unified, giving a much clearer indication of the project’s state of mind.
Synthesizers, live guitars and drums are the driving force at the album’s outset, creating some very infectious industrial rock, highlighted by extremely adept melodies and harmonies, textures and timing, essentially adding a very pop-oriented touch. The musical skills aside, it’s the vocals that distinguish brilliantfish; he has a very powerful and skilled voice, exhibiting a range usually unknown in alternative electronic music.
More and wrong are very much electronic alt-rock songs, powerful and catchy. On pure and everything thereafter, a darker pop element comes in, alongside some well-placed tribal percussion and heavier electronic atmospherics. A steady soaring groove provides the core for pure, over which the vocals drape like heavy shadows, and some Eastern music samples imbedded in the mix create pure mood. The highlight and centrepiece however, is the track dead; mixing all the elements of the album into a massively heady stir, the song rages and cascades with a beautiful fury. Hollow percussion flits over heavy poundings, gloomy washes fill the corners and again an Eastern element appears in the guitar textures. The choruses though, are the prime moments of glory, where the vocals reach colossal levels of flight and power; imagine a male Lisa Gerrard to understand the scope present. Box breaks things down into two minutes of mechanical isolation and oily blackness. The finale, bed, is dark electro-pop highly reminiscent of Shriekback’s This Big Hush. Lugubrious bass-synth pulses and steadily calm slightly rattling percussion underline ambient electronics and myriad synthesizer manipulations and warped sound effects.
Lyrically, the focus rests in the search for truth and understanding, and all the aspects thereof, whether it’s on a personal level, or a greater-reaching one, truth is very important to these songs. Darwin told the world truths it was not prepared to accept, and had he a black box like, like a pilot, recording his every word, the search for truths and greater understanding recorded there would be as fundamental as it is for brilliantfish.
The six tracks of darwinsblackbox are great works of pop music; referencing and uniting many different genres into a unique whole, brilliantfish has made a wonderfully personal record.
Review by Phosphor @ Electroage. All rights reserved. © 2000 Locusts Prod. - electroage.com

I first ran into brilliantfish on the Zed.cbc.ca website, completely by random. I immediately and completely fell in love with the new song "center," which speaks immediately to the soul with a full pallette of emotional colour.

This music will take you far away, to soar high over lush musical landscapes to strange and unexpected places. This music is rich and incredibly diverse, showing an incredible talent that you won't find on your bubblegum-pop radio, yet infinitely more listenable. Please, please, don't ever stop.
Rating: 10
- Jon Day - independent review, cdstreet.com