ChaosResolved
09-19-2005, 12:04 AM
Oceansize
Everyone Into Position
Release Date: 9/19/2005 (UK)
http://www.new-noise.net/imgs/list_387.jpg
Buy Here: Beggar's Banquet (http://www.beggars.com)
Listen Here: Myspace (http://www.myspace.com/oceansize)
Tracklisting:
The Charm Offensive
Heaven Alive
A Homage to a Shame
Meredith
Music for a Nurse
New Pin
No Tomorrow
Mine Host
You Can’t Keep a Bad Man Down
Ornament/The Last Wrongs
If you are one of those unfortunate souls who has never heard of Oceansize, I highly suggest that today be the day that you become enlightened. Every generation has it’s own collection of ridiculously talented and innovative musicians. Some are able to make a huge mark on radio while staying true to their craft. Bands like Tool, Queens of the Stone Age, and Radiohead come to mind as highly influential bands that are in tune enough with the average person to find success in their musical endeavors. Then again, some bands never find the right crowd to embrace them, or maybe they just don’t care at all whether or not they start a movement. dredg, The Postman Syndrome, and The Grand Silent System have been amazing critics and audiences for years, but haven’t been able to strike gold as of yet, just to name a few. Of course, any music nerd who whores over the Internet is more than aware of the contributions from these bands and others of their ilk, and he will readily proclaim their mastery over “the rest” of the music world’s main contributors. Oceansize still resides in this second category, largely, I suspect, because it's an English band and radio stations aren’t throwing themselves at foreign bands. With the release of Everyone in Position, the sophomore album from this spectacular quintet, everything is (hopefully) about to change.
Oceansize has three great things going for them: it's a British band, it uses a 3 guitar approach, and having only two full albums to its name, I still find myself with over 10 hours of the band's music on my computer, splayed across a variety of EPs, singles, B-sides, and live shows. It’s pretty well documented that ever since the Beatles stormed into America half a century ago, every generation has its British band that demonstrates exactly to what extent they dominate over their American counterparts. I dare say that Oceansize makes this ongoing competition between the UK and the US look trivial, and it blows anybody and everybody out of the water. No one has utilized the three guitar approach as effectively as Oceansize, who shifts time signatures as smoothly as a well-oiled machine. With a musical complexity as extensively demonstrated by Oceansize, one would expect some moments of jarring, disorienting transitions. These moments are never realized, for Oceansize only have sixty-five minutes to perform a life-changing mind fuck, and hell if it's going to waste them throwing the listener curveballs. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show; Oceansize is in command of this voyage and it is a mighty fine experience.
Two years ago Oceansize made a name for themselves with their debut effort Effloresce. From the opening lines of 'Catalyst' it was apparent that this band was on the path to greatness. Serving up a delicate helping of progressive space rock, Effloresce left a devastating wake as it circulated around the US’s underground scene. People whispered about this amazing new band on message boards, in the back of concerts, across aisles in local music stores, and most importantly, in Internet chat rooms. Internet is the foreign band’s best friend, for the radios can ignore a band all they want, but the Internet presents a quick download, and with the word of mouth approach, underground bands can blow up in no time. Riding the momentum of their monstrous debut effort, Oceansize attempts to remake the magic with Everyone Into Position.
There’s a great feeling upon listening to a new album when the listener gets the sensation that the band has both not changed at all, yet completely changed all together. Such Double-Speak is difficult to comprehend at first glance, but Everyone into Position leaves the listener in an existential stupor that can only be the result of its amazing forward progression through the years that sees the band reshaping itself as a completely fresh artistic front. Yet, the good old Oceansize is still present. Looking for lush, spacious, enveloping, progressive compositions? We’ve got some of that. Need some aggressive, complex, breathtaking instrumentation? There’s plenty of that available. Want to complement all the above with some melodic vocals and adhere everything with the smoothest transitions known to man? Yep, we can do that as well. Asking the band what they can do will result in a long list of detailed technical terms that will go unappreciated by the average music listener. Maybe a better question is to ask what Oceansize can’t do. After a bit of deliberation, I decided that it was probably unlikely for any of the band members to become pregnant, but given their mesmerizing performance on the new album, I may be tempted to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Everyone Into Position succeeds in every imaginable way--there’s no rock left unturned, no avenue unexplored, and no shortcuts utilized over the course of their new journey. The first three tracks provide all the essential components to Oceansize: a new Oceansize, an old Oceansize, and an aggressive Oceansize. 'The Charm Offensive' rings in the dawn of a brand new taste. Those fearful that the band would drop its lengthy approach to songwriting are rest assured—this first track clocks in at over 7 minutes, and the remaining tracks follow suit. Things begin simple enough as the band lays takes off with a smooth approach and clear skies. The guitars get along for the most part, content to share a common ground and keep a guarding eye over that mischievous drummer, whom has a way of letting loose. Harmonic transitions and segues provide a very comfortable start to the album, giving way to some turbulence towards the end of the song. Almost like an astute post-rock band, Oceansize uses the steady buildup of the song’s forward progression to release a cathartic, ambient closer that levels the playing field and subsides back into the peaceful calm of the album. Granted, this approach is not entirely new to the band, as it employed similar tactics in previous tracks like 'Massive Bereavement', but the Oceansize of old contained a atmospheric, brooding quality to its work that often prematurely leap into a crushing breakdown, whereas the new Oceansize exhibits a patience unseen before while electing to navigate down more ambient pathways.
The second track and first single of the album, 'Heaven’s Alive' is actually an old, revamped song from the Amputee EP, dating back four years or so. Along the years it had gotten lost in the shuffle, but now it is back with a facelift for the new album, and damn, is it catchy. This track consistently reminds me of the band Failure, and had it continued itsline of thinking into the new millennium, I think it wouldn’t be too off base to see Failure in a similar field of play. That aside, 'Heaven Alive' marks the most melodic song the band has composed to date, soft verses give way to fluttering guitar effects and enchanting choruses. Oceansize shows just how focused it can be while operating within a very lofty atmosphere. I’m not sure why this track never made onto Effloresce, but its presence is more than welcome on Everyone into Position.
Now to the aggressive Oceansize. Formerly known as 'Mark’s Up-tempo Fiasco', 'A Homage to a Shame'this was a song that had been described to me over the summer by someone seeing them in concert as “fucking amazing.” Exploding out of the gates with a blistering riff and then segueing into a series of undulating, harmonious instrumentation, 'A Homage to a Shame' is unable to contain the energy of its chorus. Over twelve minutes into the new album, we have still not seen an Oceansize where the guitars go off into the deep end, brutally combating in the confines of their spacious prison. As the song builds up, the energy becomes more and more overpowering and small packages of it escape into the sonic landscape, offering a brief glimpse into the climax. Yet, these moments are quickly subdued and brought back to earth by a profuse fury of guitar licks, offset with a trigger-happy pedal. All the band was really waiting for was some time traveling, the catalyst that pushes them into the next dimension as they bounce back and forth through aggressive, ear-splitting screams and fragile, wavering guitar effects. It’s an exhaustive track if ever there were one, and the end of it leaves the listener with a great feeling of satisfaction.
Oceansize switches back into space-rock form with 'Meredith', offering a respite from the disorienting finale of 'A Homage for a Shame'. 'Meredith' is a beautiful song, subtly showing off the finer points of the band through a reflexive style. Oceansize is not a band that is merely about balls-out rock, and this track shows that they have the skills to handle more fragile sonic landscapes without having it devour itself it its own ambition. Just in case this point wasn’t clear, 'Music for Nurses' extends the thought for another eight minutes. Again, Oceansize borrows heavily from their newfound appreciation for simplicity and subtly of instrumentation and build-up in crafting a magnificent song. 'New Pin' continues the foundation laid down in 'Heaven Alive' by navigating the listener through a maze of pulsating rhythms and angelic vocals. After a quick radio cut, this is a natural choice for a second single off of the album.
Still, among all the great progression in Oceansize’s sound, there is something missing from the album. With all the new emphasis placed upon delicate instrumentation and smooth time shifts, we’re greatly missing the feeling given in tracks like 'Catalyst' and 'You Wish'--those great tracks that somehow balanced the aggressive and the ambient. They didn’t try to apologize for their rough edges, didn’t care to explain themselves to the audience, and didn’t really aspire to be anything more than a straight up artistic expression. Well, 'No Tomorrow' is the solution to this problem. This is the Oceansize we saw in Effloresce, an uncompromising slayer of monotony and flat sonic levels, a harbinger of chaos, and the eradicator of mediocre rock. When the big players in the music scene get together, they tend to speak softly and carry a big stick. True to the blunt British way, Oceansize comes in kicking and screaming with a GIANT stick. Nothing is standing in the way of this band.
The final two tracks bring in a more experimental Oceansize that uses the last eighteen minutes to delve into a realm filled with chaos and marred by a non-linear orientation. 'You Can’t Keep a Bad Man Down' teeters awkwardly around vocal arrangements, but eventually hits the mark with a sonic force driven home with an intense drumming and dueling guitars. This is an epic song, one that is unaware of its own placement and the album and totally self-sufficient. Closing with two minutes of wandering instrumentation, the vocals return to their state of abandonment, awkwardly searching for something to anchor, yet ultimately coming up short. 'Ornament/The Last Wrongs' concludes the album with an upbeat tone that almost breaks into an anthem of sorts. It’s a style that we’ve previously not seen from the band, yet a fitting end to a monumental sophomore release.
Everyone into Position is an album that everyone needs to own. Currently seeing a release only in the United Kingdom, this is a worthy import, and not something that you should wait around for the US release. Oceansize leads the pack in the modern rock world. The arguments are clearly laid out, they excel in all areas, push the boundaries of its music, expand upon the artistic expressions of its members, and challenge the listener with a plethora of innovative sounds and compositions. In a world so plagued by a never ending rehashing of old ideas and tired genres, Oceansize are aligning themselves into position of ‘Saviors of Rock.”
~Jordan Volz
Everyone Into Position
Release Date: 9/19/2005 (UK)
http://www.new-noise.net/imgs/list_387.jpg
Buy Here: Beggar's Banquet (http://www.beggars.com)
Listen Here: Myspace (http://www.myspace.com/oceansize)
Tracklisting:
The Charm Offensive
Heaven Alive
A Homage to a Shame
Meredith
Music for a Nurse
New Pin
No Tomorrow
Mine Host
You Can’t Keep a Bad Man Down
Ornament/The Last Wrongs
If you are one of those unfortunate souls who has never heard of Oceansize, I highly suggest that today be the day that you become enlightened. Every generation has it’s own collection of ridiculously talented and innovative musicians. Some are able to make a huge mark on radio while staying true to their craft. Bands like Tool, Queens of the Stone Age, and Radiohead come to mind as highly influential bands that are in tune enough with the average person to find success in their musical endeavors. Then again, some bands never find the right crowd to embrace them, or maybe they just don’t care at all whether or not they start a movement. dredg, The Postman Syndrome, and The Grand Silent System have been amazing critics and audiences for years, but haven’t been able to strike gold as of yet, just to name a few. Of course, any music nerd who whores over the Internet is more than aware of the contributions from these bands and others of their ilk, and he will readily proclaim their mastery over “the rest” of the music world’s main contributors. Oceansize still resides in this second category, largely, I suspect, because it's an English band and radio stations aren’t throwing themselves at foreign bands. With the release of Everyone in Position, the sophomore album from this spectacular quintet, everything is (hopefully) about to change.
Oceansize has three great things going for them: it's a British band, it uses a 3 guitar approach, and having only two full albums to its name, I still find myself with over 10 hours of the band's music on my computer, splayed across a variety of EPs, singles, B-sides, and live shows. It’s pretty well documented that ever since the Beatles stormed into America half a century ago, every generation has its British band that demonstrates exactly to what extent they dominate over their American counterparts. I dare say that Oceansize makes this ongoing competition between the UK and the US look trivial, and it blows anybody and everybody out of the water. No one has utilized the three guitar approach as effectively as Oceansize, who shifts time signatures as smoothly as a well-oiled machine. With a musical complexity as extensively demonstrated by Oceansize, one would expect some moments of jarring, disorienting transitions. These moments are never realized, for Oceansize only have sixty-five minutes to perform a life-changing mind fuck, and hell if it's going to waste them throwing the listener curveballs. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show; Oceansize is in command of this voyage and it is a mighty fine experience.
Two years ago Oceansize made a name for themselves with their debut effort Effloresce. From the opening lines of 'Catalyst' it was apparent that this band was on the path to greatness. Serving up a delicate helping of progressive space rock, Effloresce left a devastating wake as it circulated around the US’s underground scene. People whispered about this amazing new band on message boards, in the back of concerts, across aisles in local music stores, and most importantly, in Internet chat rooms. Internet is the foreign band’s best friend, for the radios can ignore a band all they want, but the Internet presents a quick download, and with the word of mouth approach, underground bands can blow up in no time. Riding the momentum of their monstrous debut effort, Oceansize attempts to remake the magic with Everyone Into Position.
There’s a great feeling upon listening to a new album when the listener gets the sensation that the band has both not changed at all, yet completely changed all together. Such Double-Speak is difficult to comprehend at first glance, but Everyone into Position leaves the listener in an existential stupor that can only be the result of its amazing forward progression through the years that sees the band reshaping itself as a completely fresh artistic front. Yet, the good old Oceansize is still present. Looking for lush, spacious, enveloping, progressive compositions? We’ve got some of that. Need some aggressive, complex, breathtaking instrumentation? There’s plenty of that available. Want to complement all the above with some melodic vocals and adhere everything with the smoothest transitions known to man? Yep, we can do that as well. Asking the band what they can do will result in a long list of detailed technical terms that will go unappreciated by the average music listener. Maybe a better question is to ask what Oceansize can’t do. After a bit of deliberation, I decided that it was probably unlikely for any of the band members to become pregnant, but given their mesmerizing performance on the new album, I may be tempted to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Everyone Into Position succeeds in every imaginable way--there’s no rock left unturned, no avenue unexplored, and no shortcuts utilized over the course of their new journey. The first three tracks provide all the essential components to Oceansize: a new Oceansize, an old Oceansize, and an aggressive Oceansize. 'The Charm Offensive' rings in the dawn of a brand new taste. Those fearful that the band would drop its lengthy approach to songwriting are rest assured—this first track clocks in at over 7 minutes, and the remaining tracks follow suit. Things begin simple enough as the band lays takes off with a smooth approach and clear skies. The guitars get along for the most part, content to share a common ground and keep a guarding eye over that mischievous drummer, whom has a way of letting loose. Harmonic transitions and segues provide a very comfortable start to the album, giving way to some turbulence towards the end of the song. Almost like an astute post-rock band, Oceansize uses the steady buildup of the song’s forward progression to release a cathartic, ambient closer that levels the playing field and subsides back into the peaceful calm of the album. Granted, this approach is not entirely new to the band, as it employed similar tactics in previous tracks like 'Massive Bereavement', but the Oceansize of old contained a atmospheric, brooding quality to its work that often prematurely leap into a crushing breakdown, whereas the new Oceansize exhibits a patience unseen before while electing to navigate down more ambient pathways.
The second track and first single of the album, 'Heaven’s Alive' is actually an old, revamped song from the Amputee EP, dating back four years or so. Along the years it had gotten lost in the shuffle, but now it is back with a facelift for the new album, and damn, is it catchy. This track consistently reminds me of the band Failure, and had it continued itsline of thinking into the new millennium, I think it wouldn’t be too off base to see Failure in a similar field of play. That aside, 'Heaven Alive' marks the most melodic song the band has composed to date, soft verses give way to fluttering guitar effects and enchanting choruses. Oceansize shows just how focused it can be while operating within a very lofty atmosphere. I’m not sure why this track never made onto Effloresce, but its presence is more than welcome on Everyone into Position.
Now to the aggressive Oceansize. Formerly known as 'Mark’s Up-tempo Fiasco', 'A Homage to a Shame'this was a song that had been described to me over the summer by someone seeing them in concert as “fucking amazing.” Exploding out of the gates with a blistering riff and then segueing into a series of undulating, harmonious instrumentation, 'A Homage to a Shame' is unable to contain the energy of its chorus. Over twelve minutes into the new album, we have still not seen an Oceansize where the guitars go off into the deep end, brutally combating in the confines of their spacious prison. As the song builds up, the energy becomes more and more overpowering and small packages of it escape into the sonic landscape, offering a brief glimpse into the climax. Yet, these moments are quickly subdued and brought back to earth by a profuse fury of guitar licks, offset with a trigger-happy pedal. All the band was really waiting for was some time traveling, the catalyst that pushes them into the next dimension as they bounce back and forth through aggressive, ear-splitting screams and fragile, wavering guitar effects. It’s an exhaustive track if ever there were one, and the end of it leaves the listener with a great feeling of satisfaction.
Oceansize switches back into space-rock form with 'Meredith', offering a respite from the disorienting finale of 'A Homage for a Shame'. 'Meredith' is a beautiful song, subtly showing off the finer points of the band through a reflexive style. Oceansize is not a band that is merely about balls-out rock, and this track shows that they have the skills to handle more fragile sonic landscapes without having it devour itself it its own ambition. Just in case this point wasn’t clear, 'Music for Nurses' extends the thought for another eight minutes. Again, Oceansize borrows heavily from their newfound appreciation for simplicity and subtly of instrumentation and build-up in crafting a magnificent song. 'New Pin' continues the foundation laid down in 'Heaven Alive' by navigating the listener through a maze of pulsating rhythms and angelic vocals. After a quick radio cut, this is a natural choice for a second single off of the album.
Still, among all the great progression in Oceansize’s sound, there is something missing from the album. With all the new emphasis placed upon delicate instrumentation and smooth time shifts, we’re greatly missing the feeling given in tracks like 'Catalyst' and 'You Wish'--those great tracks that somehow balanced the aggressive and the ambient. They didn’t try to apologize for their rough edges, didn’t care to explain themselves to the audience, and didn’t really aspire to be anything more than a straight up artistic expression. Well, 'No Tomorrow' is the solution to this problem. This is the Oceansize we saw in Effloresce, an uncompromising slayer of monotony and flat sonic levels, a harbinger of chaos, and the eradicator of mediocre rock. When the big players in the music scene get together, they tend to speak softly and carry a big stick. True to the blunt British way, Oceansize comes in kicking and screaming with a GIANT stick. Nothing is standing in the way of this band.
The final two tracks bring in a more experimental Oceansize that uses the last eighteen minutes to delve into a realm filled with chaos and marred by a non-linear orientation. 'You Can’t Keep a Bad Man Down' teeters awkwardly around vocal arrangements, but eventually hits the mark with a sonic force driven home with an intense drumming and dueling guitars. This is an epic song, one that is unaware of its own placement and the album and totally self-sufficient. Closing with two minutes of wandering instrumentation, the vocals return to their state of abandonment, awkwardly searching for something to anchor, yet ultimately coming up short. 'Ornament/The Last Wrongs' concludes the album with an upbeat tone that almost breaks into an anthem of sorts. It’s a style that we’ve previously not seen from the band, yet a fitting end to a monumental sophomore release.
Everyone into Position is an album that everyone needs to own. Currently seeing a release only in the United Kingdom, this is a worthy import, and not something that you should wait around for the US release. Oceansize leads the pack in the modern rock world. The arguments are clearly laid out, they excel in all areas, push the boundaries of its music, expand upon the artistic expressions of its members, and challenge the listener with a plethora of innovative sounds and compositions. In a world so plagued by a never ending rehashing of old ideas and tired genres, Oceansize are aligning themselves into position of ‘Saviors of Rock.”
~Jordan Volz