Solstice Coil
Oceansize - Self Preserved While The Bodies Float Up
Self Preserved While the Bodies Float Up, the fourth studio album by alternative progressive band Oceansize has a heavier tone but manages to reintroduce the band’s skillful songwriting style, packed neatly in thick guitar soundscapes and clever stereo manipulations.
This might sound weird coming from a member of a prog-rock band, but when I first read that Oceansize’s Self Preserved While the Bodies Float Up was going to be “fifteen songs, all under four minutes”, I was genuinely excited.
An Introduction to My Oceansize Experience
When I first heard Oceansize’s first album, Effloresce, I really liked its classic ‘The Bends’ alternative rock sound, only it came with a more vigorous approach. I listened to it a lot, though it didn’t scale as a top album at first.
When Everything Into Position was released, I got it and listened to it a few times, thinking it was nice. I told Opher about it, without making much of a fuss about it. “Oceansize have a new album out” is pretty much all I said.
Then a few weeks later Opher said he had been listening to the album and that it was awesome. So I gave Everything Into Position another listen. All of the sudden, I rediscovered the amazing and rich musical world that is Oceansize. I consumed both albums repeatedly, savoring the music over and over again, always finding out something new.
This band was giving me everything I ever wanted in music: a dynamite sound with sharp guitars, a good versatile vocalist and compositions that are both intelligent and emotionally driven. What was so great about them was the fact that they were able to produce complex prog-like riffs and compositions, but it sounded like they weren’t even trying to do that. Only after dozens of listens to Effloresce did I even notice that many of the songs sported odd time signatures. This was refreshing compared to all those Neo-Prog bands that have been dragging 7/8 into the ground in the past 30 years, creating what we in the “scene” call a Progressive Rock Cliché.
And then, came Frames. I was concerned that Oceansize would become too self-conscious by the great artistic and critical accomplishments of Everything Into Position, and when it was released, I felt like that’s exactly what had happened.
Frames still had the great sound and powerful performance that an Oceansize fan would expect, and it did have some great moments, but to me it felt like the natural complex compositions were gone, and were replaced by songs that sounded like very long sessions. It was as if in the past, they just wrote songs that sounded proggy, but when they became aware that they’re actually playing progressive rock they panicked and started trying too hard to keep up with themselves and ended making the same mistakes that rookie neo-prog bands do.
Don’t get me wrong, Frames was definitely not a flop. It does have some great moments, exciting riffs and an amazing sound. It wasn’t a huge disappointment like every Mars Volta album released after De-Loused in the Comatorium. But it did have 10 minute long instrumentals that took forever to get to nowhere, like “An Old Friend of the Christies”. The album’s opener, Commemorative 9/11 T-Shirt (awesome title btw), featured the same 11/8 time signature used on the Charm Offensive to open Everything Into Position, except that on the Charm Offensive, it actually went somewhere, instead of repeating the same riff for three and a half minutes before actually starting the song.
My, that was a Long introduction; let’s get to the actual review, shall we?
So anyway, after an album with songs that lasted for over eight minutes for no apparent reason, the fact that the band even joked about producing an all-four-minute-song album was a hint that they’ve seen the error of their mistake, and are now ready to return to their roots.
As with all Oceansize albums, it took a while to get used to it. Even as I was writing this review, I was listening to parts of Frames and telling myself “hey, this is actually not that bad after all.” So Self Preserved While the Bodies Float Up took some time to sink in, as any album with profound music and lyrics does.
At first it sounded like the band was burrowing deeper into their Meshuggah influences. After a few full listens, it became evident that this was only partially true. The heavy songs were much heavier, but that didn’t reflect on the lighter songs, nor did it cause them to feel unrelated to the feel of the album. That’s the sign of a really good band: when it can slap a progressive death metal assault next to a slow, mellow ballad, and still sound like the same band.
The album’s sound is very warm and concise, with a rich analog feel to it. The guitars sound like they were played out of king-size high-end amps, the mix is sharp and clear, the arrangements are well balanced, allowing you to hear every single instrument (or at least, so it sounds, maybe there are more layers of guitars hiding somewhere).
The album also includes some very interesting stereo manipulations, which at first I felt were a bit redundant, but after getting to know the songs I learned to appreciate them. Silent / Transparent begins with very eclectic drumming, and the extreme panning stood out so much that at first it made feel like they were artificially trying to cover up the lack of originality in the songwriting with some technical tricks. But then I decided it wasn’t the case, so stop writing that hate mail.
Self Preserved While the Bodies Float Up is not without its faults, though. There’s still an excessive use of consistent patterns, which generates a certain sense of repetitiveness, lacking the rich composition style of Everything into Position. Some redundant moments like the 3 minute long postlude on Oscar Acceptance Speech, which does sound very nice but lasts for way too long, and the over-the-top metal extravaganza of It's My Tail and I'll Chase It If I Want To.
The last two songs, Pine and SuperImposter, are quite reminiscent of the band’s “old style”. I love the sound of their spacey effect-drenched guitars, combined with Mike Vennart’s smooth, relaxing and yet somehow at the same time haunting and disturbing voice. These two songs make an excellent ending for a somewhat unbalanced album.
Self Preserved While the Bodies Float Up shows that Oceansize still has a lot to offer. It’s not their best album, but once again, it’s not their worst album either (seriously, that Mars Volta album was horrible.) I’m looking forward to hear more from the band, as even on their worst day, Oceansize still kicks the collective asses of most of the bands that operate in today’s “New Prog” scene. I’m hoping to fly out of the country sometime and make it to at least one of their shows before it is too late, like in the case of the Cooper Temple Clause.
Wtf is Alternative Progressive Rock?
When talking to people about Solstice Coil, I am often asked three questions: 1) what does Solstice Coil mean? 2) How do you pronounce it? (Mostly Israeli people ask that) and 3) what kind of music do you play / wtf is alternative progressive rock?
So here are some answers for you:
1) It means nothing. Just kidding, it means something, we just don't know what… I elaborated about this in this interview.
2) You pronounce it phonetically, obviously!
3) Well…
I remember writing a forum ad for our first show, which stated that we played alternative rock / grunge / Britpop. Naturally, those were different times, with a completely different material. Our influences at the time were mostly Muse, Radiohead and Nickelback.
Okay, just kidding about Nickelback, but I was a keen fan of Britpop bands, mainly Ocean Color Scene, Dodgy, Blur, Oasis and Mansun.
Obviously, a lot has changed since then. We started diving into the world of progressive rock, which eventually led us to chuck all the songs we had and replace them with what would eventually become A Prescription for Paper Cuts. The thing was, we didn't quite feel like we were making progressive rock per se.
The Search for Definition
My singing style has always been influenced by Thom Yorke and Matthew Bellamy, as well as the mood of our compositions. We also didn't feel like we were measuring up to "real" progressive rock bands like Genesis, King Crimson and Yes – we really didn't feel like our music was that complicated.
On the other hand, we sure as hell weren't going to define ourselves as a Neo-Prog band. We also didn't want to claim to be a prog-metal band because some songs weren't that heavy and the falsetto style of singing found in APPC was very none-metal.
I'll just Create My Own Genre, Then! (With blackjack, and hookers)
We decided a new sub-sub-genre was in order. Since we combined alternative rock and progressive rock, it was only natural to call it Alternative Progressive Rock, or alt-prog-rock for short. Or APR for really short. Though nobody calls it that.
We didn't know of many bands that fused these two styles the same way we did at the time, except maybe for fellow Israeli rock band Eatliz, but they took it to a far more extreme direction, which was often clearly progressive metal (even if they won't admit it).
Surprise, Surprise, Alternative Progressive Rock Exists
When we finally got to record some tracks and upload them to the web, we started receiving all sorts of feedback. One comment on Garageband mentioned The Mars Volta, which we didn't know at the time.
After listening carefully to their music, we felt like we had just found our twin brother – this was a band that made crazy music with odd time signatures, unorthodox song structures, long guitar solos and busy arrangements, while still maintaining a modern sound and not actually sounding like a prog band at all!
So naturally, after we were told we sound like them, we started doing everything we could to sound like them, but on purpose.
Then another comment spoke of Dredg. Though not quite a progressive alternative band, they do present some unconventional songwriting and a unique drumming style, especially on El Cielo.
The most notable band we found was Oceansize. Now this was a band that had the guitars and vocals of Radiohead and Muse, only all of their songs are played on a 7/8 time signature. Efflorescence paved the way, but Everyone into Position really established their reign as alternative progressive rock kings (though their MySpace paged defined them as a Progressive Death Indie band).
I would also like to note two albums from the late 1990s that I feel are model examples of alt-prog-rock:
Mansun - Six
This brilliant concept album is the apex of what I think alternative progressive rock should be: ambiguous yet meaningful lyrics and unexpected compositions that never cease to surprise you. I recently read on Paul Draper's blog about the making of Six, and it really inspired me. I wrote a review about the album a few years ago, you can read it here (for Israelis and Hebrew majors only)
Pulp – This is Hardcore
Yes, Pulp. If you don't know this album and you think Pulp was nothing but an upbeat Britpop band with some silly hit songs, think again. This concept album is very well crafted, musically, lyrically and visually. It's not as off-the-hook as Six, but it has some very interesting compositions, particularly the title theme, which is both moving and intellectually stimulating – and that's what alternative progressive rock is all about!
If you can think of any more examples for alternative progressive rock, let me know!
Of wormholes and golden banjos
My journey with The Mars Volta started about three years ago. After I listened to their music, got really annoyed and deleted all of their songs from my hard drive and never thought of it again, I was reintroduced to the Mars Volta when someone who reviewed one of our songs in Garageband compared us to this band I had a faint recollection of. My second impression was "what the hell is this?" I let Opher have a listen and he shared my sentiment. But this time I didn't forsake, and after five times of listening to De-louse at the Comatorium, I finally got it. I recommended it to Shai, whose initial response was unsurprisingly "it's not that great", but he eventually came around too. I've listened to this album hundreds of times, and I'm not exaggerating. It remained in my Car's CD changer for a total of six months straight (CD changer? What the hell is that?), and I can always listen to it again and not be bored by a single moment, even though I practically know it all by heart. Well, except for the lyrics. Even my memory has limits.
Unfortunately, such an excellent debut is hard to follow. The release of The Mars Volta's fourth studio album, The Bedlam in Goliath, is further proof of the fact that while Deloused was an amazing achievement, it appears that it stunned even the members of the Mars Volta themselves. They really have no idea how it happened, and have been trying to recreate this success time and time again, in a variety of unlikely methods. When it comes down to it, it wasn't the guitar blips and churns that made De-loused at the Comatorium a great album. It also wasn't Omar's guitar technique of "hitting every possible note until something sounds right" nor was it Cedrix's distinguished high frequency vocals. It was the way all of those things were wrapped together with excellent melodies and efficient songwriting. The compositions were complicated, the arrangements were packed, it had so many features that under other circumstances would be irritating rather than beautiful, but it all fit together perfectly, delivering a complete artistic message. Every song had a beginning, an end, and a whole lot of unpredictable middle between them. But the songs were clear. They served their purpose perfectly.
And then something happened. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala apparently forgot how to do it. They forgot how songs should begin and end. Without this vital knowledge, they started to experiment with new methods of constructing songs. In Frances the Mute, they decided that every song should end with 3-10 minutes of painful noise, caused either by a random synthesizer module or simply by someone kicking a guitar amp that's turned all the way up, until the next song eventually suddenly emerges. On Amputechture, they decided to try a different way to end songs. They simply wouldn't end at them all. The songs go on and on, with an average running time of 9 minutes, some lasting over 11 minutes, and usually not justifiably so.
The Bedlam in Goliath sees a combination of the two. The songs lengthes are not standard (not as much as on Amputechture, but still), and instead of ending each song with a lot of noise, they decided to record the noise OVER the actual songs. Kill two birds with one stone, aye? Also, instead of having a beginning and an end, the songs simply erupt into existence and then eventually get disrupted and a new song would begin without any warning. It took me three listens to realize that Aberinkula and Metatron are actually two separate songs. Because with these guys, how can you tell, really?
By the way, do NOT put this album on if your stereo's volume is high. I wasn't kidding about the part about the songs erupting – I think I lost 20% of my hearing capacity the first time I listened to this album.
Now, it's not that I'm a stranger to songs who spread through an unconventional period of time. Obviously, since the average running time of a Solstice Coil song is six minutes. I love the 30 minutes long The Truth will set You Free by The Flower Kings, for example. But the reason I love it so much is that despite the fact it's so long, it doesn't feel that long. It's carefully constructed with a variety of excellent melodies, instrumentals and diverse arrangements, which is exactly what De-loused had. Frances the Mute had a couple of very good songs, but it had more noise than actual songs. The 30 minutes long saga at the end of the album, doesn't work as well as the aforementioned piece does. While it has some powerful melodies, it also has several minutes of either noise or complete silence, and very long and agonizing one chord jams. Amputechture was mostly a headache. Though it had some memorable moments, they were scarcely scattered among many minutes of excruciating dissonant guitar solos.
The Bedlam in Goliath has the least redeeming moments. When I first listened to it, I was appalled. I couldn't believe one of my favorite bands released something so horrible. But since I know that things change with this band, I continued to listen, and I started discovering the content beyond the racket. Much to my dismay, it wasn't enough. Every time I got to a good part and started thinking, hey, this is actually not bad, something twice as horrible came in its stead and made me forget why I ever liked listening to this band in the first place.
The majority of the songs are comprised of good choruses and crappy verses. However, even the good choruses sound almost exactly like the good choruses from previous albums, with a slight variation of a note or two. Much like in the Cassandra Geminni saga, the verses consist of a long jam based on a generic hard rock riff, with Cedric singing completely-improvised-blue-note-drenched vocal melodies, which I'm afraid to say are often quite ugly, even though some of the riffs are cool. I think that the best melodies on this album are on the disco song, Ilyena. And by the way, I FUCKING HATE DISCO.
Wax Simulacra is one of the shortest songs in Mars Volta history. It erupts with some way-too-happy melodies, and includes some bizarre Nintendo-esque musical transitions between verse and chorus, which reminds me of the soundtrack of Contra 3. This is actually one of the better songs, which is why it's a shame it ends as quickly as it begins. Did I mention the whole eruption/disruption concept?
Goliath begins with a Rage Against The Machine groove, includes unmelodic improvised vocal melodies again, along with some obvious King Crimson rip offs, which eventually evolves into yet another generic rock riff extravaganza.
Tourniquet Man is another short song, only this time, we'd be better off if it stayed that way. Starting off with an 80s style chorus guitar, which is always the harbinger of bad news, almost half of the song is overrun by the most excessive use of annoying effects I've ever heard. This song makes me cry, and not in a good way.
In Cavalettas, the Mars Volta show just how completely lost they are in the art of songwriting. If every song on De-loused has carefully picked melodies, which were both catchy and challenging at the same time, then The Bedlam in Goliath is the complete opposite. In fact, Bedlam is De-loused's arch nemesis. A weak, feeble, poke-you-in-the-shoulder-a-million-times-kind-of-annoying arch nemesis. Cavalettas demonstrates the poorest technique in songwriting, which simply states – if I repeat the same melody four hundred times in a row, the song will become catchy! So granted, after a few listens, I started walking around with 5 seconds of this song stuck in my head, playing repeatedly in a never-ending loop, but is that really a good thing?
In all Mars Volta albums, there's always a moment I instinctively send my hand to my pocket because I'm sure somebody's calling me on my cellular phone. Usually it's not the case, rather the various blips and squeaks (or Hammond) that resemble the sound of a ringtone that the band likes to add to the music with no apparent reason so much. On Askepios, they take it one step further. They actually sampled the noise that speakers make when affected by a cellular phone's radiation when it is about to go off. Also, this song includes some of the ugliest melodies I've heard in my entire life, including the stupidest guitar solo in Mars Volta history, and, let's face it, Omar does tend to play some really idiotic shit from time to time.
Ouroborous reintroduces us to the Mars Volta's Spanish influences, which, thank god, we've been spared of up until this point. This is practically the only aspect where this album is better than the previous two. As much as I enjoy constantly making up words for Mars Volta songs and turning all the lyrics into a tribute to Lorenzo Lammas, I have enough trouble understanding their english lyrics. Also, the use of Spanish percussions in this song sounds like a pale attempt to recycle the cool groovy vibe of Drunkship of Lanterns.
Soothsayer is another example of the same melodic line repeating itself a million times. Cedric improvises front to back, and some of his attempts hit the mark, but mostly this song is a nuisance. The entire song, all nine minutes of it, includes the same fucking Arabian nights riff that repeats itself over and over and over again. It's nice that Omar decided to get in touch with his Middle Eastern roots, but dude, do it on your own time.
The fact that the album ends with Conjugal Burns does bring some hope, as this is one of the better songs, maybe the best. It definitely has the best chorus. Although, again, it sounds too much like the chorus of Take The Veil Cerpin Taxt, both in melody and arrangement.
It all comes down this time: While De-loused was an actual artistic accomplishment that operated in a void, because nobody believed that this kind of music would ever be so popular in this day of age, its success spoiled the band for good. They've been desperately trying crack their own secret formula, but only managed to scratch the surface, reusing the external elements without any of the internal content. The excessive use of noise, the continuing attempts to make everything bigger and louder causes them to completely miss the point. De-loused has some pretty stupid dissonant guitar roles, but they all worked within the context. Stupid, yet borderline brilliant. They told the story. And it seems like the Mars Volta have forgotten that in music, much like in cinema, story is key. And no, that does not mean that the lyrics have to convey the epic tale of a cybernetic one eyed centaur that travels through space and time to find a good ham and cheese sandwich, through metaphors that only someone who has inhaled poisonous gasses can understand. It means consistency. Which, much like a bad David Lynch movie, is what this album lacks the most. Okay, I know, all David Lynch movies are bad, but this is more like a student film trying to imitate the works of David Lynch.
The Mars Volta are constantly turning into a parody of themselves. The audacity of self importance and the complete lack of self awareness, fuelled by fame and sheer laziness, are causing them to magnify all of their faults and diminish their strengths. In the past, when Cedric sang in his unique high pitched voice, it was moving, because he was doing it out of some kind of pain. Now it feels like he's doing it because he has to. It's expected of him. It's his shtick. De-loused was an intense, emotionally exhausting and disturbing journey. This album is just disturbing. Although it has some cool grooves which cannot be disregarded and some memorable melodies, the few aren't enough to make up for the whole. This is simply not good enough.
Maybe it's time to reevaluate. The Mars Volta has clearly become something that cannot be contained anymore, even by its own creators. Years ago, when Cedric and Omar saw that At the Drive-in is no longer fulfilling their artistic vision, they decided to call it quits and start over. Maybe it's time to do that again.
