Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

We are driven by sound every day, whether in the form of industry or of nature, we cannot escape it, for in silence they say comes peace, and yet for many silence isn’t golden, it is the anathema that fills all time, from ship to shore, from coast to shining coast and Across the Western Ocean, we need sound, we need to feel that there is more to life than the suppression of the resonating hum which guides us onwards.

It could be argued that we are at one with the universe when we listen to the noise it makes, that silence stifles creativity, and as the waves crash into the cliffs, as the ripples lap gently at the shore, so we find that the expression of the human voice is a perfect addition to the mood created.

It is in the swell of the sea shanty that perhaps the allusion to the mix of nature and human vocal illustration is at its most powerful, most raw, for when aboard ship, when wrestling with fierceness of the waves and the dangers of the deep, there is nothing more vital as communication, of knowing that the person next to you on deck is as committed to survival as you are.

For Toronto’s Pressgang Mutiny, the sense of harmony is one that exemplifies the meaning of strident vocal release, and in their latest release, Across the Western Ocean, the imagery shaped and fashioned is enough to have even the hardest of hearts lay their head down in acknowledgement of the richness of the human voice for a while and be tempted to join in, to find their own voices being pressed into service.

As memories of water and song come rushing over the listener, tracks such as the passionate opener of Blow the Man Down, Bear Away, Yankee/Roll Boys, Roll!, Poor Johnny, So Early In The Morning Medley, General Taylor and Rolling Down to Old Maui, leave their extensive mark on the soul and crush the peril of silence, tossing it overboard to be the plaything of mermaids, the aspidochelone and the leviathan.

The human voice is never to be dismissed, without it the silence wins, and that is where humanity will suffer its greatest sorrow.

Ian D. Hall