Vessels – White Fields and Open Devices
Vessels are a five-piece hailing from Leeds, light on vocals but more than compensating with an array of guitar-based songs that some have given the label post-rock. Not that I want to stick anyone in a neat little box but post-rock is probably quite apt for a band that sound like a more minimal Muse. And seeing as Muse now get bogged down in descriptions like Apocalyptic, space post-rock, it would seem fair that Vessels get a more minimalist tag. When it’s put like that, it almost sounds logical…
White Fields and Open Devices had already begun to win me over before I had even played the album. For a start, just the names of the songs are brilliant. A Hundred Times in Every Direction, Look at That Cloud! and Wave Those Arms Airmen, sound like they’ve been thought up by a philosopher with A.D.D! The songs themselves aren’t as manic as the titles suggest, but build and surge around, full of crashing, distorted guitars and the occasional understated vocal from Tom Evans.
When I first put the album on to give it a listen, a good old technical hitch meant the proper speakers weren’t working, so I started off with it just coming through the tinny speakers of my laptop. Once I got up and found some headphones it was like hearing a different album. White Fields and Open Devices is a big, ethereal sound which demands proper playback. I’ve already drawn the obvious Muse comparison but here’s another one that’s not so quick to mind – Elbow. Not in any kind of melodic or structural sense but in the way that Vessels can create a vast sound that flows over you.
Atmospherically vast is not their only modus operandi though, as proven on track eight, Yuki, the more chilled Sigur Ros-esque effort on the album, even featuring a bit of birdsong. Bleakness is also given a run on Walking Through Walls, one of the shortest tracks on the album at four and half minutes.
For a debut album (having released a self-titled EP in 2006), White Fields and Open Devices is an absolute gem of the post-rock variety. While the tracks are indeed quite weighty in length, they don’t feel overly long or get stuck in self serving mediocrity once (cough cough… Forth… cough cough Verve… cough… who said that?)
The tricky second album challenge they have left themselves though is to keep up with the fantastic track names. I mean, how do you top An Idle Brain And The Devil’s Workshop?
By Mark Williams
