Details:
I’d be a liar if I were to say I’d not been waiting for this album for ages. Ever since I first saw Vessels I’ve been aching for this record, so it will come to very little surprise to readers that I really do love it. Vessels have long been a staple on the British live circuit and have certainly made a name of themselves through their consistently epic and regular live show. I personally was aware of them long before I was lucky enough to eventually catch them live (Last summer).
Though they do bravely live up to their ’post rock’ badge; Vessels are in fact a lot more. Rarely there comes an album that changes my feelings about music and humbles me, both as a musician and as a fan - but this does, and has impressed me in ways I struggle to remember an album doing in some time.
Though I hate reviews that use terms such as ’imagine Motley Crew beating up Jah Wobble and The Invaders Of The Heart while Cannibal Corpse watches’; however with albums like this, that kind of comparison is actually relevant. Truth is; ‘White Fields And Open Devices’ does remind me of other records. There’s certainly nods to the usual stalwarts; namely Mogwai, Godspeed! You Black Emperor and Explosions In The Sky - in fact EITS’ ’All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone’ producer; John Congleton has was drafted in - and this relationship was an inspired choice, and the result is a thing of beauty.
It’s so wonderfully diverse; you’ll find delightful acoustic, merged with enormous Pelican-esque like grandiosity. At times you could be listening to Elbow, Candidate or The Sleeping Years then in the next breath the subtle interplay of both guitar and electronics reminds one of the ’fall of math’ era of 65 days, back before they ran out of riffs.
It’s ballsy and it’s massive, an album with huge power and might. It’s an album with teeth, but good teeth that have been whitened. In short, it’s ace.
Listen: www.myspace.com/vesselsband
Tracklist:
1. Altered Beats
2. A Hundred Times In Every Direction
3. Happy Accident
4. An Idle Brain And The Devil’s Workshop
5. Walking Through Walls
6. Trois Heures
7. Look At That Cloud!
8. Yuki
9. Two Words And A Gesture
10. Wave Those Arms Airmen
