Vasa

Colours

Written by: LF on 13/05/2016 12:42:14

This debut album by the Scottish instrumental band Vasa actually came out last year but it has now resurfaced for me because they are about to play at this week's A Colossal Weekend event in Copenhagen. Thus, I have been checking them out and find that this album certainly warrants a review. The band plays post-rock but in a very mathy way with huge riffs changing into mind-boggling fast sections reminding me more than anything of their fellow math rockers in Mutiny on the Bounty.

From the very get-go, the record is at full speed with the telling title of the intense intro track "Smashletes" that forces the album open while featuring sounds similar to a car revving up, signalling that we better strap in for the ride. It slides over into "As Long As It Doesn't Explode" that is fittingly bursting at the seams with echoing guitars buffed up by underlying synths that soon blow back and forth like a storm is rising. A song like "Fat Ronaldo" soon shows that they can slow down sometimes as well, though without losing an ounce of their energy which is instead shown in the powerful strums across their equilibristic guitar play. This start of the album quickly gives the listener an impression of an insatiable hunger and desire for loud fun that seeps through every song like the splashes of colour on the cover.

The album is very consistent in that respect, and not one song lets down this initial attitude even though some tracks stand out in different directions. The shorter tracks "Punched" and "Unpunched" showcase a more atmospheric and more traditional post-rock sensibility, serving as palette cleansers that make us ready to receive the next busy injections of math rock. The bombastic tracks that follow, "The Angry Dome" and "Ergonomic Keyboard", are the ones that really convince us to throw up our arms and celebrate with the band. The former features an ecstatic guitar riff that sounds like the rushing soundtrack to a dream where you discover you can fly and soar high above mountains and lakes, while the latter, the longest song on the record at 6 and a half minutes, surprises with a few unusual jumps in harmony and rhythm and cements a darker, more distortion-focused side of the band.

While not the most diverse record ever released, "Colours" is so persistent in its mission that it ends up impressing nonetheless. Every song can get you rocking in your chair and the monumental highlights are very evenly spread out across its length which makes it a good listen with several peaks that make you want for more and more.

Download: Fat Ronaldo, The Angry Dome, Ergonomic Keyboard
For The Fans Of: Mutiny on the Bounty, And So I Watch You From Afar, Totorro, Tides From Nebula
Listen: facebook.com/VasaBand

Release date 16.10.2015
Black Sheep Records

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