North Atlantic Explorers are a band that probably wouldn’t like the comparison, but sound remarkably like a better version of acclaimed emo band American Football on their previous album, My Father Was A Sailor. They do not sound at all like American Football at all on this album. 

All The Ships At Sea is a series of short (often under two minutes) instrumental tunes named after the various ships frontman Glenn D’Cruze’s father served on while in the Merchant Marines. 

The group’s Bandcamp describes their music as being electro-acoustic, but is far from being as sparse and experimental as music with that label often is. Rather, each track is evocative of the North Atlantic ocean that the group is named for, sounding both homey and wistful for what one would think is Nova Scotia, but is probably meant to evoke memories of Scotland, where D’Cruze’s father served (so, it’s close, when you think about it). 

All in all, a fine record, and judging by how deftly North Atlantic Explorers cross genres between releases, it would be worth your while to see how this group’s music develops. 

- Topher Duguay

Published in Volume 70, Number 5 of The Uniter (October 8, 2015)