Oceansize - 'Effloresce' (Beggars Banquet)
5/5
By: Toby L
Oh thank ye Lord up yonder for this here assaulting, melancholy, beautiful, ugly, heaving, subtle, contagious, engrossing, confusing, melodic, pained, restrained mass of searing UK rock-metal...
So categorising Oceansize was never a deed worth undertaking. And, after the release of their debut-album, it seems even further a prospect not bothering to attempt. But, testament to the teaching that definition doesn't equate to explanation, Manchester's dynamic, surging quintet aren't one to try and pin down - merely one to encounter. And treasure, if you can.
For 'Effloresce', you see, is the album of your dreams, and nightmares. An engaging, always riveting (and seldom easy) mass of torrential hooks and surreally haunting soundscapes of bold, and occasional minimalist, capacity. It's the grossest contradiction you've ever heard - a record that moves and touches for its all-out audacity and immense capability, but segregates the listener from the performers through its own sheer spookiness... Look closely to each members' foreheads; you just may see the words 'brooding' and 'evil' tattooed there, a voodoo-doll poking out each of their back-pockets...
Yet, in spite of the compulsive darkness, all 75 minutes are a true journey to submerge within, an hour and a quarter to switch off amidst and forget all you know, ready to learn again, straight from scratch: a musical-epilogue both masterfully intriguing and wonderful (the Ancient Egyptian chimes and pyramidal mystique of 'Massive Bereavement' or 'One Day All This Could Be Yours'), or hugely rollicking in their monstrous, obstinate intensity (the only slightly catchy moments - 'Catalyst', and dramatic, hairs-on-end close of 'Saturday Morning Breakfast Show').
Elsewhere, it's even more complex - a series of mysteriously navigated, stark instrumentals - namely, the opening strains of 'I Am The Morning', and mid-LP introspection-point, 'Rinsed' - or sombre, downward-glancing, slouch-a-longs, guitars used as spherical, strings-a-likes ('You Wish'; the choir-backed 'Women Who Love Men Who Love Drugs'; the harmonies-ridden 'Remember Where You Are') and vocalist Mike Vennart consistently belting out a guiding high/screech timbre untainted enough to compete with the surging mass of racket that constitutes the collective experience. Eventually, the ordeal finishes - climaxing dreamily in the mid-pace 'Long Forgotten', senses alert, heart afloat, expectations shattered.
And whether or not the masses pick up now or later, Oceansize have crafted with their first full-length record an unadulterated, ear-ringing classic, as compelling as it proves natural, and frightful as it shines through embracing. Once you've fallen in, you're unlikely to return. At last - enlightenment, in all its unrelenting g(l)ory.
Artists in this article: Oceansize
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