ARTIST : Vessels
TITLE : White Fields And Open Devices
LABEL : Cuckundoo Records
GENRE : Post-rock / Indie
BITRATE : LAME v3.97 VBR V2
SOURCE : CD
SIZE : 95.7 MB
STORE DATE : 2008-??
Track List
----------
01. Altered Beast [7:00]
02. A Hundred Times In Every Direction [6:23]
03. Happy Accident [4:32]
04. An Idle Brain And The Devil's Workshop [7:04]
05. Walking Through Walls [4:36]
06. Trois Heures [6:38]
07. Look At That Cloud! [8:37]
08. Yuki [4:46]
09. Two Words And A Gesture [4:20]
10. Wave Those Arms, Airmen [9:25]
http://www.vesselsband.com
http://www.myspace.com/vesselsband
In recent years, the term æexperimentalÆ when applied as a musical genre has
digressed into something of an excuse for bands who wouldn't know a tune if
it kneed them in the groin and slapped them in the face to hide behind; it
has become an almost symbiotic apology that justifies each other's relative
existence.
And then of course there's that old chestnut: æpost-rockÆ. A breath of fresh
air a decade ago when first unleashed on an unsuspecting audience, carving
through the stagnant remains of Britpop with the incision of a pork butcher
mastering his trade; but nowadays impostor-upon-impostor has rendered the
genre about as predictable as a Premiership title race, and with about half
the excitement.
Enter Vessels, a band whose mere existence seems to be built upon by
continuously confounding and subsequently exceeding any kind of pre
-conceived expectations either the listening public or indeed band members
themselves may have. While some of the influences may be pertinently obvious
on White Fields And Open Devices, the places where they crop up and rear
their heads may not be quite as easy to spot, or indeed fit in with the age
-old structural template of fast-slow-fast, quiet-loud-quiet. Nor,
thankfully, is this record an exercise in post-rock posturing. Instead,
Vessels have created something that is both unique and alluring which should
endear them way beyond the chin-stroking legions of Mogwai devotees.
Not that anyone fortunate enough to have seen their live shows over the past
year would have expected any less. The promise of early singles 'Yuki' and
'Two Words And A Gesture' was evident from day one, the missing ingredient
at the time being a decent recording of either. Thankfully, the band's
choice of The Paper Chase's John Congleton on production duties, a man
previously responsible for turning Explosions In The Sky's All Of A Sudden I
Miss Everyone into the masterpiece it has since become, was an inspired one.
The re-recorded versions of those aforementioned singles glisten with an
effervescence not previously heard on their limited edition 45 formats,
'Yuki''s piano-led signature providing a classical-themed yin to 'Two Words
And A Gesture''s jazzy prog-folk yang (think Youthmovies covering The
Twilight Sad's 'Mapped By What Surrounded Them').
The rest of the record proves to be as equally captivating in many different
ways, not just in the way that the slow-build up of opener 'Altered Beast'
and grand finale of closer 'Wave Those Arms, Airmen' seem somehow linked,
like the titles and credits of a film. This is where we begin and this is
where you end; it's been said before, but one can visualise Vessels writing
cinematic scores in the future.
Their dalliances with metal, abstract dance beats and lo-fi folk also
shouldn't be underestimated. 'A Hundred Times In Every Direction' begins
dissipated, almost like a drum machine in slow motion, before the guitars
kick in, aided by a stampeding onslaught of drums halfway through that
brings to mind how Battles might sound if they ever developed post-hardcore
tendencies into their music. Likewise 'Happy Accident', with its eerie
sampled voiceover of obscure American TV presenter Bob Ross as an
introduction to the deluge of guitars and electronics that follow, could
almost be an obscure Warp Records release if it weren't for the truly
ferocious delivery. Then there's 'An Idle Brain And The Devil's Workshop',
where math-rock time signatures collide with gargantuan metal riffs in the
song's last third, the word æepicÆ not quite doing the end results justice.
Of course there will always be some who are sceptical and ultimately
dismissive of mainly instrumentally-based, experimental rock albums such as
this, and on hearing White Fields And Open Devices I'd say the five members
of Vessels are almost certainly among them. Which is exactly why they should
be commended on making one of the most forward-thinking, non-generic records
you're likely to hear this year.