Gazing at the stage I appear to be looking directly into Vessels studio set up. They’ve got everything up to the kitchen sink, plugged in, amped up, locked in and eager to go. The density of the quintet’s songs would appear to warrant such a diversity of instruments and personnel.
My only previous exposure to Vessels comes in the form of their single Yuki, a sublime, shimmering evocation of melancholy so the intensity and outright ferocity in tonight’s set comes as a slight surprise. Still underpinned by glorious melody but with brutal beats and lacerating guitars songs like‘ An Idle Brain and The Devil’s Workshop’ and‘The Beast’ threaten to overpower, skirt the edges with their intent to spill into chaos, but there’s far more to Vessels than winding noise into an extreme apex or trilling complex figure on the fretboad, kind of like a far less shouty Liars chilling out more.
I suppose there may be a cause to label Vessels with the‘math-rock’ tag somewhere along the line but whilst this can apply one minute the managed to wriggle free and become something else, something unique which is no small feat. Fans of the usual (mostly) instrumental-rock suspects will undoubtedly love Vessels with a passion and for anyone seeking something fresh in a genre often easily aped will be blown away.
www.myspace.com/vesselsband
www.mekongdelta.co.uk
Saturday 11 April 2009
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