Crimson Creatures have released their Fragments EP today. It’s a journey through a catatonic woman’s subconscious mind, as she relives her life experiences and traumas.
The EP is a single track in nine parts and has a run time of seventeen minutes and twenty-one seconds. It’s a bit of a departure for the band, being more theatrical than their previous work, and, being a bit of an epic, is in danger of being labelled a load of pretentious prog nonsense, but we think it has just about swerved and missed that label.
Fragments is available on all the usual streaming services, and, of course, available from our Bandcamp too. You know what to do.
Frankenstein’s Monster
Back in February, Crimson Creatures were in the middle of recording their first album and EP. Though the songs they were recording at that time were very interesting and distinctive, they were relatively straightforward in composition. (99% of popular music works like that. Even some seemingly far-out sonic experiments can be broken down into common song progressions.) But, that was OK. They never pretended they were making high art.
One day, they were discussing their common appreciation of overblown 70s Progressive Rock. Keith declared that it would be cool if, sometime in the future, they attempted something a bit longer and more complex than what they had tried so far. (Keith is always saying things like that; he also wants to do an extended instrumental section, a soundscape, and something ‘rackety‘.) A few days later, the insatiable Richard unveiled an 18-minute demo called Fragments. He appeared to have taken the comment as a personal challenge.
Fragments went on the back burner whilst they concentrated on their EP and album releases, and rehearsing. Work resumed on Fragments in July. They refined its overall concept and structure, and began adding layers of instruments, voices and other noises. It’s fair to say that they got a little carried away.
They completed work on Fragments in late September. Standing back to admire the finished article, they realised that they were looking at a Frankenstein’s Monster of a song. Song? Can you even call it a song? Clocking in at 17 minutes and 20 seconds, it only pauses for a few milliseconds, and is built of no less than 9 distinct sections. It even has a cast. What had they done?!