Oceansize: A Very Still Movement

Unsigned bands: often unsigned for a reason. Less often, you fall over when you find out they aren’t signed. I fell over with this one. Oceansize recently supported The Cooper Temple Clause on the first leg of their nationwide tour and wowed the crowds with their tremendously epic Incubus-esque noodlings. The Manchester-based quintet smack down those same funky beats on this EP which includes some ridiculously lengthy songs.

‘Women Who Love Men Who Love Drugs’ is about as long as the title. At over 9 minutes I’m so glad the song didn’t sound like Blur as well as the title. Quiet atmospherics merge into a grandiose offering of caramelly reverberation. The tune is so sublime it just…passes you by. Now imagine a tinkling guitar and tender tapping of a hi-hat. Sweetly sung vocals lingering and strained screams malingering. This is ‘Size Of An Ocean’ – possibly rather incongruously named, as the previous track was far greater in depth and thickness of sound. The crashing guitars and suitable distressed vocals lie just under the surface ready to discharge a caustic implosion of cathartic energy upon you.

Oceansize include a third brilliant song with ‘Catalyst’ and this should be the song to make people sit up. In current musical climes where innovation is of no consequence, this chuggy, soaring, etc song should do it for them. There is still something out there.