Negative Capability – Semafor (EP Review)

Semafor is the new three-track rock extended play by Negative Capability. 

The EP starts with with ‘Aperture’. Soft piano introduces us to the song, some frantic strings kicking in before some mean drumming appears. Then there’s some humming, this initial arrangement disappearing as the ethereal vocals enter, playing over almost non-existent instrumentation. But the soft vocals and instrumentation disappear, with mean drumming and almost strained vocals taking over.

The bulk of the instrumentation follows this mean mood, and the vocals alternate between softness and loud delivery. ‘I bleed for the signal’, we hear. Another lyric being, ‘I bleed for the truth’. ‘Close the aperture’ is another. Lead guitar appears later on in the song. It’s a song that mixes softness and meanness. The vocal delivery varies in a song that refuses to settle on one arrangement.

Soft piano also starts the song in ‘The Sentinel’s Tithe’. But it’s basically the same formula from the start. Vocalisation alternates between soft singing and some computer-tweaked delivery that can be loosely said to lean towards horror elements. ‘Something is coming; something is real’, we hear. This is blood raising music. The energy is enough to lift you up. Storywise, we have a lyrical persona saying ‘we’re the tithe’ that someone has paid, just that it’s difficult to hear clearly the rest of the lyric. 

The EP ends with the title track. Again, we have piano kicking us in. ‘I came so close tonight’, we have a male vocalist softly singing. ‘I felt the page turn beneath my hand’. With this minimalist pairing, you can cleanly hear the lyrics. 

‘The period was beautiful,’ the song continues. ‘The ending almost kind. The signal was never brighter. The aperture never wider’. Of course, there’s some rhyming here, but this use of the word ‘aperture’ speaks to the artist’s affiliation with photography ​related songs. 

But the soft arrangement disappears later on, the instrumentation becoming frantic and gaining some meanness. Unlike with the other songs, the vocalisation stays soft, although it does so in varying styles, however briefly soaring at times. 

Basically, the story of the song is the lyrical persona addressing someone they have close ties with. 

SCORE/Good: Negative Capability has carved a familiar sound. But whereas the instrumentation is almost a neverchanging fact, vocalization alternates between soft and hard singing. Ultimately, it’s another formulaic part. 

[We rank singles, EPs, and albums on a scale of Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, and Outstanding]

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