FRAMES

Oceansize

Psychedelic/Space Rock

4.04 | 332 ratings

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Wicket
Prog Reviewer

Oceansize is one of those bands that very subtly fluctuates between calm and serene soundscapes to absolute bone crushing distortion in an instant.

When I first heard "Everybody Into Position", my first exposure to Oceansize, I just dismissed them for a carbon copy Riverside or half-baked Porcupine Tree, but once I heard "No Tomorrow" (still the best song they've made, in my opinion), I realized they had tried developing a heavier sidebar to their aesthetic in order to avoid being lumped in with their contemporaries.

But while "Everybody Into Position" had a much heavier outlook than "Effloresce", the intro song "Commemorative T-Shirt" off this record has an altogether different sound. A long buildup and miminal vocals are categorized by a post-grunge influenced sound, perhaps even a shoegaze inspired sound from the 80's Brit rock boom? Surely the Smiths, New Order, Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine influenced prog-based successors like Porcupine Tree, Riverside The Pineapple Thief and Oceansize.

Overall, the chords are heavy and resonant, "wall of sound" type chords, but it's not boring at all. As the music segues into "Unfamiliar", the vocals make their presence more pronounced, the guitars begin to move and shift, the drummer springs into life, only for the song to abruptly end.

"Frames" is a stunning album. It's far more cohesive than the outfits previous two albums. It's a sound of their own that manages to combine soft, retrospective and melancholic tones ("Trail Of Fire", "Savant") with some explosive instrumental prowess ("Unfamiliar") and even some doom metal-esque sludge and drone stylings ("An Old Friend Of The Christy's"). Oceansize to me always had a bit of shoegaze stylings around their music, and this album screams shoegaze in many ways, but their textures, changes in sound and direction and cohesive musical visions make each song stand alone and give life to this album. An excellent album with a sound all its own.

4.5

Wicket | 4/5 | 2019-10-11

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