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Vessels : Yuki/Forever The Optimist
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Experimental post-rock with electronics influenced by indie-rock, metal and euphoric music.
Genre: Rock: Math Rock
Release Date: 2007
Yuki/Forever The Optimist © Copyright-Cuckundoo Records
  • Download Album (MP3) - $1.98
Preview Song Name Time Format Price Select
Yuki 4:42 $0.99
Forever The Optimist 5:29 $0.99
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Album Notes

''Dynamic post rock which stalks around your room before launching itself through a window.''
Steve Lamacq, BBC Radio 1

“salacious” Dom Gourlay, Drowned In Sound

This is the first official release by vessels following 2006’s self-released vessels EP which the band sold on tour and via their MySpace, and has gained them a steadily growing fanbase across the UK and beyond.

Having met in Leeds and been friends/bandmates for a few years, vessels was spawned in late 2005, consisting of members Tim Mitchell (drums/beats), Martin Teff (bass/guitar/synth), Tom Evans (guitar/vocals/keyboards) and Lee J. Malcolm (guitar/vocals/keyboards/producer).

Within months the band was hailed the “tightest, slickest and most musically proficient band I think I've ever seen on the unsigned circuit” (Leedsmusicscene.net). An eventful Leeds festival appearance, support slots with iLiKETRAiNS, Youthmovies, Jeniferever, The Appleseed Cast and Mono, and courting from Steve Lamacq, Huw Stephens and Rob Da Bank followed. 2006 proved to be a whirlwind year for the band.

February 2007 sees the first UK tour for the band, and this will conclude with the release of double-A sided Yuki/Forever The Optimist. The former is a live favourite that the band has opened many a set with. Yuki is characterised by a lot more restraint than previously recorded tracks like The Beast or Take It Outside (from the 2006 EP). Blending soft vocals with electronics as well as the trademark build-ups, Yuki was conceived by guitarist/vocalist/ producer Lee J. Malcolm in a dream!

Forever The Optimist started life as a groove-based instrumental track, but evolved rapidly into what effectively became “Leeds 6 collective project”, as friends were drafted in to add layers of vocals which contribute to its hypnotic and triumphant feel, very much inspired by Broken Social Scene. This open minded strategy has produced a track unlike any of their previous works, and bodes well for the future of this young band.

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REVIEWS

A band that are surly destined to set the genre ablaze!
author: Judas Kiss Magazine
Written by Lee Powell Following hot on the heals of their excellent self-released, self-titled introductory CD the Vessels turn with their debut official release in the shape of the stunning double A side ‘Yuki/Forever the Optimist’. Starting with ‘Yuki’ you instantly know you’re listening to something special. Accompanied initially be a lone piano is the low droney almost Tom Yorke styled vocals that captivate you almost instantly. The bittersweet melancholy that emanates from the amalgamation of piano and vocals is darkly haunting yet delicately uplifting. Setting a mood and intensity that is complexly sharp whist at the same time being invitingly isolated. These contradictory teams only help seal in the emotive power and aural descriptiveness that ‘Yuki’ demonstrates almost straight away. With the delicate infusion of immensely subtle glitched electronica ala Efterklang the depth and atmosphere the track projects slowly starts to build however with the inclusion of
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the melancholy of Sigur Ros
author: New-Noise
There’s the melancholy of Sigur Ros in the layered piano that whispers along like it's been played on a remote island and the sound is just drifting into earshot. Beguiling with multiple uses of bleeps and weird effects switches, it gives it an icy feel but also one that you can snuggle up warm to.
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‘Yuki/Forever the Optimist’ embodies a winning openness of vivid character that
author: Tasty
A soporific, floating piano melody peeks through, peeling away layers note by note, chord by chord, to reveal ranks and echelons of crevasses, weaving in and out of a soothing and seraphic musical density. Instrumentals build and breakdown embrace one another with fluid correspondence, seamless and effortless. ‘Yuki’ unfolds to flood the sonic space with heavy-hearted distance and pulsates with flourishing spirit. This atmospheric dreamscape glides with whimsical cloud-like features, with instrumental peaks and bellows with modest vocals, seemingly batting gently behind veils of void. I can never confidently clear the precise wording, the works of guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist Tom Evans and guitarist/vocalist/keyboards/producer Lee J. Malcolm match the musical vibrations, contributing to what develops like a pristine and intricate mechanical operation, but still benignly organic and satisfyingly triumphant. In charge of drums/beats, Tim Mitchell’s work genuinely shines in ‘Forev
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This single really delivers the goods.This is accessible, exciting music
author: Whisperin' & Hollerin'
Now that a full generation of young musicians has absorbed the beauty and scale of Montreal, Iceland and outlying parts of Scotland, Chicago and Texas, there’s a scramble on to make epic guitar music into something that can stir a response from an excited, wider and wiser music audience. Contenders are multiplying but it’s only very recently that I’ve been convinced. iLIKETRAiNS for one have successfully managed the appropriation to make their new history folksongs into something fresh and exciting. And here are VESSELS, with more rock in their roots, but with the same yearning for something more nourishing, dynamic and euphoric. Their first demo EP was very promising. This single really delivers the goods. ”Yuki” is a modestly brief four minutes 42. It’s built around a three bar piano phrase of considerable beauty. The development glances over a shoulder at post-OK Computer RADIOHEAD, with some aching vocal, a glitchy ruffle or two in the rhythm track and some very careful, ver
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