Who lives in a cargo ship on top of the sea. Hi, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of this Unix album, Harbor Century. Something is in the water, you all. I'm not just talking about the boats on this album cover. If you are at all a fan of underground rock music, you most likely have noticed, as of late, a trend of bands with some very eccentric parallels, all cropping up at once. I'm talking about groups with a penchant for long, winding, experimental, progressive art rock tunes, topped with intense lead vocals that range in performance style, from singing to screaming to spoken word. Bands such as Black Midi, Sprain, Black Country New Road, as well as Maruha come to mind. And look, I don't just mean to frame this up and coming Sydney Rock Collective as if they are trend hoppers or something like that. I mean, they've been at this for a minute now. This is their second full-length LP. But I think what bands such as Unix are doing right now has been in the making for a while. Because while the hipper alternative side of the contemporary rock music scene through the 2010s wasn't super prog or experimental rock-centric, among the fans and listeners, there was still no shortage of love for things like the most extravagant prog rock albums of the '70s, all the '90s and 2000s classics that defined the post-rock genre from bands like Slint and Godspeed.

Let's not also forget the game-changing comeback run that Swans had from 2010 to about 2016. In this review, I feel like I would be remiss if I didn't at least try to account for modern avant auteur such as John Zorn or Scott Walker or Mike Patty or Tobe Driver. My point ultimately is it was only a matter of time before all of these sounds evolved into something else for a new generation of musicians, maybe even converging a little bit, too, Which is why I think this Unix album here is hitting at exactly the right place and the right time. For sure, the sound of this record, the influences going into it are absolutely in my wheelhouse, which is why this record caught my attention to begin with. But the more I listened to it, the more I just felt like in terms of execution, it falls short. I mean, for sure, the band is on its way to something grandiose and awe-inspiring, potentially. But I think the ideas and skills going into this record aren't really living up to the ambitions it has. I mean, first off, the vocals and singing on this album. For a record in this style, I think they're imperative because you're not really just singing, you're acting as well in a way as a means of locking the audience into the very long narrative and abstract poetry that you're pretty much smothering them with.

Often I found a lot of the writing on this LP to be too indirect in order to just keep me engrossed in everything they're saying, maybe with the exception of the opening track, which reads the insane ramblings of a mad sea captain. And this guy's crew, as well as just the people generally his ship, are very much the victims of his crazy, violent, uncontrolled behavior. And while I do think the storytelling and relentless screams on the song are most definitely there, the singing, not quite as much. As the clean vocals on this track, and really throughout the LP, are notably much weaker than the more aggressive ones, to the point where it sounds like I'm listening to a bad rock opera. And it doesn't really help that on the second track of the record, the narrative starts getting so convoluted that you can't really glean much from the song outside of these gargantuan, blurting, massive horn layers, which I do think there's something, too. But these orchestral bits that Unix just really piles on to pretty much all the tracks on this record, there's not really much breathing room from them. There's no real reprieve.

So often their presence wears its welcome after a while. And while mixing and layering and arranging, singing, all of these various horn parts, most certainly took a lot of time, a lot of focus, and a lot of effort. The end result is that they just feel like this overbearing distraction from the songs at the core of these tracks. Following this, we have more weak musical theater singing on Estuary of Dreams, which is a track that feels like it just exists to slowly pile on more little instrumental tidbits that just takes on more grand layers as it escalates. Meanwhile, another track from the record that was, in fact, a single siren may not be as novel as it comes across, with some elements of glam rock in the mix, as well as this schmaltzy baroque weirdo pop that feels like the early work of Man-Man with a few pa, pa, pa, pa, breaks that are very Brian Wilson-esque. On tracks like this, there's also a serious lack of musical ideas sticking with me throughout the song because the structure is so winding and constantly changing. Even when you do get a good idea or two thrown at you, the band doesn't really give them any time or room to breathe or grow or develop.

It's always just on to the next thing. Conversely, Magnificent Stalion does seem to gain back some coherence on the song structure side with some pretty strong refrains, though I will say the singing still continues to sound like it's more concerned with being eccentric as opposed to being on point. It's still just very sloppy. The same shortcomings and dynamics continue throughout the rest of the album. However, I probably should make mention of the record's 17-minute closing track, Heroin King, which is indulgent on a level that makes pretty much every other song on this album sound like it's pop or just easy listening. Between the harps and very heavy, slow, simple, dirgy piano parts and the gravelly spoken word vocals that are very dark and dramatic, this one is going to test your patience if you are not fully engrossed and invested in the narrative the record has been on up until this point. But I mean, even as somebody who is following a long, I have to say I'm not really blown away. I feel like inadvertently what Unix is showing us here is just how difficult it is to make a song that is 15, 20, or 30 minutes long and have it end up being genuinely coherent and engaging from front to back, even if you seemingly have the means to do it.

Even some compelling lyrical themes to work in along the way, like the downfall of a surly, power hungry character whose life is built on drugs and a system of haves and have nots, which all falls apart in a very Emperor has no clothes type fashion, which I'm not going to spoil what's going on any further than that. You'll have to listen to it for yourself. But yeah, what's making this album fall short is difficult to put into words because there is so much going into it. To this album's credit, it is under an hour in length, but still somehow it feels much longer, as I do think the finer details in the arrangements, in the song structures, in the singing are all lacking, and those shortcomings are just being pasted over with a lot of huge horn sections, a lot of big showy instrumental arrangements, which I think is the most succinct way of explaining why it's not quite doing it for me. I am feeling, though, a strong five to a light six on this record. Ahoy, ahoy, oh, captain, my captain. Ahoy, ahoy. Permission to come aboard this review. Well, the review is over.

There's pretty much not anything else to do now other than transition. I hate this hum in the background of the video. Have you transition, zition, mission, volition, interstitian, bition, forever.