Oceansize - Reading University - 8/10/02
5/5
By: Toby L
Just what planet Oceansize have landed from will be one of music's most closely guarded secrets.
Despite currently possessing a reputation only known to those that caught The Cooper Temple Clause's mammoth UK tour earlier this year when the 'Size acted as support to the monstrous haircut-bearers, let alone such UK-notables as Haven and Elbow - two acts that have publicly revealed their support of the Manchester quintet - things, unlike the band's sound, are still relatively low-key surrounding their growth. But, if the group's upcoming EP, 'Relapse', is anything to suggest, especially when coupled with the prospect of a further month of shows in Britain, then the secrecy on this act's stark uniqueness will be dismissed for once and for all.
Tonight, incidentally, is the first night of the five-piece's UK-jaunt. Assembling amongst around 400 keen students are former touring-buddies and locals to the area, TCTC - who proceed to heckle their friends on-stage throughout the performance - and the venue is awash with cheap, scatty ska and rock-anthems that should be hidden in a cupboard marked 'shame'. Resultantly, the ambiance created prior to tonight's headline performers is hardly that of thoughtful introspection and anticipation, so much as a drunken expectation to dance around to some live-music. Fortunately, the onlookers are provided with more than a mere, cheap thrill.
Appearing in view with the same cocksure stance of the musical-legends prior to them, a keyboard-dominated instrumental opens proceedings, a blissful serenity and ample elegance swarming the speakers - yet this is hardly accountable of what's to follow, with the mighty instrument-crashing and crushing intro of 'Catalyst' striking and bellowing out enough grinding thunders and intricate instrumentation to enforce all members to physically crouch and hover across the stage as if they're caught within a hurricane. Visually and musically, we all are compelled a sight and sound so dextrously loaded with vivid motion and ideas that its rhythmic-shadows of Rage Against The Machine fuse obscenely well with abstract concepts employed by Mogwai.
A welcome bout of irony from singer/guitarist Michael of the 'beautiful' location within which we're housed this evening breaks the mould of intensity temporarily, and it's not long before the hypnotic, churning surges of 'Amputee' pulverise full-speed-ahead into yet another symphony of twists and turns akin to the reverberations echoed outwards after a train crashes into an atomic bomb.
But, to ensure their potential wide-spread appeal, amidst the wild eruptions of sheer volume-defying massiveness, there are killer-choruses and songs, god-dammit, a specific new composition so implausibly clever that its oriental undertones inform the memory of similar effects expressed on-screen during James Bond movies every time Odd Job appeared in sight, whilst its horror-show theme eeriness evokes what could form the personal nightmare of Freddy Kruger.
'And, so, for our last trick,' announces our frontman, prior to the compelling seizure of 'Saturday Morning Breakfast Show', 'This is the obligatory crowd-pleaser.' He couldn't be more right, with the gently swaying first few minutes inducing nodding heads and its exasperatingly gross thicket of textures and noise which form its crescendo inspiring moshing and mouths open, people visibly and righteously aghast at what's just been witnessed.
For times in music where scenes can often prove predictable, Oceansize are the hugely original and devastatingly perfect ensemble to come along and prove that your wildest dreams are possible. An act seemingly from the future, let's just be pleased they're with us now.
Artists in this article: Oceansize
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