Vessels – Helioscope

Take equal parts Minus the Bear and Mogwai and what do you have? Aside from the recipe for a great night out, you have Vessels’ Helioscope, only the second full-length from the Leeds quintet but given how accomplished it sounds, you would think it’s their tenth. It’s an album of awe-inspiring scope, packed with jilting melodies, soaring waves of feedback-driven noise and vocals that possess an almost crystalline clarity.

Thanks to John Congleton’s meticulous production, an album that all too easily could have been buried under layers of sound has instead allowed each individual and contrasting moment its chance to come to the fore, be it the intricately coinciding guitars on Recur or the crushing pulsation of snare on Art/Choke. Listening to it through its entirety is a staggering experience, an ordinary enough instrumental setup transformed into something that is no less than ambrosia for the ears. [David Bowes]