Let's not beat around the bush about this band: OCEANSIZE are every bit as immense as their name suggests. They are exciting, exhilarating and never, ever less than challenging. They are an ultra-tight quintet and hail from the ever-fertile Mancunian hinterland, but - with the possible exception of Doves - are a far more epic proposition than anything even that remarkable city has previously produced.
"Effloresce" is their debut album. It's been a while coming, but it's been worth it. In terms of scope, this writer's heard little to rival it this year, while in terms of emotional sweep it delivers in spades. You could be cheap and redundant and try to dismiss it as "proggy", but, well, it's your funeral if you do. A technical point is also valid before we dive headlong into these turbulent waters, too: Chris Sheldon is/was a superb choice for the producer's chair. He's worked wonders down the years with everyone from Foo Fighters to long lost Irish heroes Into Paradise, but this could be his crowning glory.
Proceedings fade in with "I Am The Morning", one of three instrumentals here. It morphs from slow, eerie and evocative to full-blown Hurricane Isobel in the blink of an eye before finally coming to rest. They're only getting warmed up, really, but it's still an awesome flex of the muscles. "Catalyst" broods in its' wake and really shows you what Oceansize are capable of, spluttering into life on bruised riffing recalling Nirvana's "Floyd The Barber" and going on to take in Radiohead-style harmonics and lulling you into a false sense of security with plangent interludes before truly going for the burn and razing the building.
Amazingly, what ensues continues to up the ante. "One Day All Of This Could Be Yours" is breathtaking, swelling from a twinkly fairy light keyboard motif to strafing, Arabian guitars, malevolent bass undertow, drummer Mark Herrin's supernatural drumming and Mike Vennart invoking God knows what unearthly spirit. "You Wish," meanwhile, kickstarts a further run of incredible songs, with the sizzling, Fugazi-ish complexity of recent single "Remember Where You Are" and the album's one (almost) linear pop thrill "Amputee" following through exceptionally. "Amputee" is arguably the album's most moving moment, too: if I have this right, it's an open letter from Vennart to the man upstairs, featuring him howling "Dear God, how do you forgive yourself?" at one point, before signing off with "There's gotta be something better than this" as the band surf huge waves of discontent. Heady stuff indeed.
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Elsewhere, you mustn't miss the yearning insistence of the sarkily-titled "Women Who Love Men Who Love Drugs" and the way it changes up to a dangerous fifth gear as all five of them conjur up a hammer of the Gods crescendo and the closing "Long Forgotten", which has a following-morning-coming-down elegiac quality with mournful sweeps of cello washing over the beach as the waves finally recede. Even here, though, they can't entirely resist the lure of epic quality as the post-refrain post-rock(out) gradually gains ground and they assemble for one last asault on the cliff face.
All of this is utterly unmissable, but I've been saving "Effloresce"s absolute tour de force for last. Indeed, if you want to find out just how far ahead of most of the competition Oceansize are, just proceed straight to track four, "Massive Bereavement". Cutting the umbilical via backwards masking, lonely Joy Division-style ritual drums, it broods along for a while with Vennart uttering lullabye spells until it hits a huge sleetstorm at roughly four minutes. Reminscent of the gale howling thru the centre of Led Zep's hoary old classic "Whole Lotta Love", it tails off to reach Hendrixian overload, falls back on itself, allows Vennart to mutter home truths such as "What a way to go, I'm still running for a bus we missed years ago" before the band smoulder, build and take precarious bend after precarious bend en route to an apocalyptic ending that will have you literally gasping for breath. It's a behemoth and no mistake and unlikely to be bettered by anyone this year.
According to the dictionary definition, "Effloresce" broadly means to burst into blossom and flower beautifully. In that case, Oceansize couldn't have chosen a more apposite handle for this debut. A rare, intoxicating and exotic bloom, it demands attention and cannot remain hidden beaneath glass for a moment longer.
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