Vessels - Retreat

Vessels are most frequently classed as a post-rock band and, indeed, many of the tracks here feature several of the key elements of what one thinks of as a classic post-rock sound. So, the slowly building volume, grandeur and drama of Knee Jerk and Wave Those Arms, Airmen (Little Evil remix of the track from the first album), along with the latter's big crashing drum rolls, and the distinctly 65daysofstatic-like fluttering synths in Descent all conform to expectations. What makes this band more interesting and appealing, by a wide margin, is the wide and disparate range of other elements that they also cram into their music.

Rarely feeling forced, or simply thrown in for the sake of it, nearly every track nevertheless comprises a quite startling range of devices, styles and effects. This is best exemplified on the quite brilliant Descent - a long and absorbing track which veers from skittish fluttering synth interjections to a high seriousness of tone, to a surprise (and unintelligible) vocal appearing half way through, to a lovely melody fading in and out.

All the while the music still manages to stay sufficiently inclusive to carry the listener along on the journey, rather than leaving them alienated or excluded. At times the rhythmic complexity is more distinctly math rock (the Battles-like Fully Altered Beast, Wave Those Arms Airmen), yet other tracks are leavened with beautiful, unadorned acoustic guitar playing (Descent, Walking Through Walls Bracken Remix, Knee Jerk). Electronica, chock full of bleeps and glitches, takes the driving seat, perhaps inevitably, in the very Errors-like Errors Remix of An Idle Brain and The Devil's Workshop.

Perhaps the only exception to this throw-it-all-in-the-same-pot rule is Remain. Coming just after the midpoint of the album, the slow-burning drone, with occasional background sounds approximating cricket tweets and rainfall make the track feel like a break in the musical action: a soothing interlude to lose oneself in, before all the intricate, detailed busyness starts up again.

As evidenced in their impressive live performances, some extremely and effortlessly proficient musicianship is on display here. The aforementioned acoustic guitar interludes, but also the intricate and complex intertwining of duelling call-and-response guitar parts in the outstanding (if annoyingly "hidden") track Knee Jerk are testament to the serious skills. Importantly, though, these are skills worn lightly: this is not a band to make heavy weather of their talents, or feel obliged to underscore their virtuosity.

Certainly, then, fans of post-rock will enjoy this album. It would be a shame, though, if those put off by some of that genre's more predictable tropes (the pomposity, self-regard, formulaic song structures etc.) indict Vessels for others' crimes, for this is smart, complex, highly skilled yet ultimately cohesive and appealing music.

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