Oceansize offers Frames as their third CD and first North American wide release. Frames is a brilliant album by a group of courageous artists. Produced by Chris Sheldon in 2007 in Wales, with the inclusion of the bonus DVD Frames Live, Oceansize makes its play for the American audience.
Sheldon has produced albums for Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, Jeff Beck, Foo Fighters, Radiohead, Biffy Clyro, and now three consecutive for Oceansize. Unique scores are performed with stunning collision and clarity by Mike Vennart on lead vocals and guitar, Richard “Gambler” Ingram on guitar and keyboard, Steve Durose on guitar and vocals, Steven Hodson on bass, keyboard and cymbals, and Mark Heron on drums and percussion.
Genius went into Frames and it deserves the respect of a focused first listen. Oceansize has something to say and it’s not just in words. It’s in the punctuation between the tracks. It’s designed into the ebb and flow of one movement to another. There’s meaning in the dramatically blended structure.
The enchantment of “Commemorative ____ T-Shirt” is in the softly taunting vocals preceding a sitar-like solo. A hard change turns into the disturbing “Unfamiliar” where guitars spin out intricacies that eclipse at shutter speed. An abrupt pause is the breath that launches into the tumultuous symphonic discordance of “Trail of Fire.” Its triumph yields to the pure wonder that is “Savant.”
The psychedelic “Only Twin” fades to throbbing grief for “An Old Friend of the Christy’s.” Drums give voice to mourning and the track dies to the angry fighting milieu of “Sleeping Dogs and Dead Lions.”
This audio journey reaches its focal point with “The Frame,” a lyrical epiphany that’s quite simply sublime.
Frames gives recall to the music that changed the way we listen – The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” The Doors’ “Light My Fire” and Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon.
Oceansize aims for sound as limitless and ungovernable as the Atlantic. It’s achieved by individual streams that merge into one. Many labels have been applied to their sound: art rock, indie rock, progressive or experimental rock. Perhaps it’s just the future of Rock. Listen as Oceansize creates a sea change.
Terry Martinez – MuzikReviews.com Contributor
June 1, 2009
