New Sounds #3

I spent the last 3 months or so listening to the following new albums/bands that I found:

Vessels – White Fields & Open Devices

Vessels - White Fields & Open Devices

This is another amazing British band that I found. I can remember hearing them ages ago, on a Rock Sound compilation, but I wasn’t too impressed as it was one of those epic tracks that just kind of sounded like another Explosions rip-off. I am so over that cliché post-rock stuff (still love Explosions though, all the carbon copies, not so much).

Anyway, I didn’t pay them much attention until I stumbled upon their album on Emusic recently. This band turned out to blow my mind. I’ve since gotten this album as well as their debut self titled EP and some of their B-sides, remixes and singles.

Yes, their longer compositions do tend to lean towards the abovementioned kind of soft/loud cathartic build-up post-rock, but a lot of the songs have vocals, really pretty lyrics as well as really awesome electronics. Their guitar-playing is impressively intricate and I also love that they have lots of piano bits as well. I love bands that you can’t judge by just one song and Vessels is definitely one of those. I aplologise Vessels Anyway, I’ve been listening the crap out of them and I think you should too.

Near The Parenthesis – L’Eixample

Near The Parenthesis - L'Eixample

After getting into Arc Lab and Lights Out Asia a couple of months ago, all the recommendations for similar sounding artists tended to lean towards this band/guy. I streamed this album and liked it but never got round to actually getting it as it sounded like it might be a bit too typically ambient for me. I listened to the previous album and it really just sounded like random glitch ambience, which I’m not too crazy about.

I ended up giving this new album a chance eventually and ended up loving it. Opposed to the other IDM bands that I’ve been listening to, Near The Parenthesis is a lot more reserved and somehow manage to keep me listening, although there aren’t that many dynamics. It’s all weird little micro-beats and pretty synths and samples and field recordings etc. It’s totally dreamy and somehow different from most bands in this genre.

Meleeh – Heartland

Meleeh - Heartland

This album is quite old I think, but I’ve liked this band from the first chord that I heard when I streamed them on Myspace a couple of months ago. They’re a noisy hardcore band from Sweden and have a new album out now I think, I just can’t get a hold of it. Getting this album was mission enough, but I’ll keep trying.

Anyway, these dudes remind me of the creativity and conviction of Refused, only minus the electronics and weirdness. Think of Meleeh as Refused, but more straight up. They haven’t exactly reinvented the hardcore wheel, but there’s something about them that make them so much more appealing than all the lame, popular bands in this genre right now. The riffs are awesome, the drumming is creative and the vocals are intense.