Vessels knock over barriers of complacency to return with their fourth album and one which clearly opens the band to new dimensions. Many bands have more enthusiasm than ability but crucially, Vessels have both. ‘Mobilise’would work well on any Underworld album, with its merry electro shrouded with splinters. It will result in thrashing around like a beached shark.
‘Deflect The Light’ –a collaboration with the equally delirious The Flaming Lips – is robust in its out-there approach. It’s easy to imagine bamboozling the audience dressed up as yetis and singing about the dragonflies that they see. Vessels may not be able to find an angle they’re completely satisfied with as all their releases are markedly different. Or maybe this is a band brimming with ideas and not wishing to lose a moment without expressing themselves.
Vessels introduce several other collaborators including John Grant. Rhythmically nuanced, a song like ‘Position’ should be gratefully received as an instrumental of significance. The more you listen to The Great Distraction, the more you appreciate that it would take some beating as a representation of the Vessels manifesto with its kosmische soundscapes and hipster stealth. It appears that Vessels have finally reached the intensity previously suggested, but not assumed.
