Oceansize - Frames

The echelon of greatness, Oceansize have long been considered neo-progressive but a closer listen to the velveteen, layered textures of their music will reveal that the majority of the soundscapes and the sheer depth of everything they do is achieved mainly through production. And Christ, they know how to produce a record. Chris Sheldon is one of the best in the business and Frames stands as a testimony.

Firstly a quick recap. Effloresce is released in 2003. The name means “to blossom forth”, which is what that record did. Oceansize blossomed forth with their debut, the songs, more often than not, blossom forth from cryptic musings drenched in guile and deception into loud, soaring outbursts of energetic fury. And as an album, Effloresce effloresces very nicely into an almost tangible blossom with the last three tracks at around ten minutes each. The record covers a whole array of styles but is primarily rock based with progressive and metal influences. The schizophrenic and erratic time signatures of their more unusual numbers carry forth into a couple of songs on their next LP, the highly polished and ultimately complete Everyone Into Position, released in 2005, spawning two killer singles in the form of the almost radio-friendly Heaven Alive and the skittish, all over the place New Pin, a song I feel is at the absolute pinnacle of pretty much everything, ever. Other impressive songs from that album include the exhausting opener The Charm Offensive, the beautiful, meandering Music for a Nurse, and the epic, almost supernatural closer The Last Wrongs.

Frames is both an extension and a simplification of the last two records, and simultaneously and perhaps stubbornly, it is neither. The production this time around is better than ever, as the record lures you in with the opener Commemorative 9/11 T-Shirt, Vennart begs “try to keep your composure, I’m just having a laugh” and the effect of the overwhelming amount of stuff going on is instantaneous. The first single taken from the album is Unfamiliar, a sort of mechanical yet liquid-like bastard child of Women Who Love Men Who Love Drugs and A Homage to a Shame. Oceansize have the uncanny tendency to grow on you gradually like a slow, sly disease. Frames is a long record. The shortest song clocks in at just over six and a half minutes, meaning that time and energy is required as an input more than ever before in order to become fully appreciative of the gorgeous, gorgeous sound. Other tracks which have already impressed me are An Old Friend of the Christy’s, which starts off with bleak, death-knell drums before evolving into a frenzy of overdriving guitars and I believe there are some string-symphonies in there somewhere too. Trail of Fire, which is track three, ends in the most energetic dying four minutes I’ve just about ever heard. Sleeping Dogs and Dead Lions is offensively heavy and fast with hardcore influences, the intent was to shake you up a bit but in reality it shell shocks and disorientates. The last true track (disregarding the eleven minute bonus Voorhees) is a song called The Frame which reminds me a little bit of the closing track from Everyone... because of its epic feel, and big-sounding, sweeping guitars towards the end.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Oceansize are a largely underrated and for the most part ignored band which can only be truly experienced first-hand. My job here is made more difficult because they defy description and seriously can’t be pigeonholed into anything. They are a rock band, they are a progressive band, an emotional band and an ambient band. They are all of these things at the same time as they aren’t exactly any of them. The contrasts in the music serve to disorientate and confound those who have to know what they’re listening to. But spend a little time and allow yourself to be submerged and smothered by the band’s thick, viscous sound and you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it. Outstanding.