Yume Bitsu — The Golden Vessyl of Sound

Yume Bitsu is a space-rock/post-rock quartet from Portland in the US (no, they are not from Japan despite their exotic moniker) and their new album, The Golden Vessyl of Sound, is both very ambitious and unpretentious in equal measure. Based around an obscure concept involving the Moth People and the Elders, the album is mostly comprised of a very fluid instrumental space-rock/post-rock mix that, at times, incorporates more traditionally structured song sections and pop melodies. The male vocals, despite being one of the band's strong points, make only a few appearances; one could certainly hope that the band will use them more on future releases.

The band announces: “There are no song titles for this record. They were created and existed as improvised or barely structured music throughout their development as recordings and it feels wrong and contrived to think of words to fit them now. We have chosen to let them stand nude as sonic experiences without and beyond the boundaries of the written word.”

This approach works mostly well on Golden Vessyl and it seems that the band found a good balance between the planned and improvised, which gives the whole a certain spontaneity and looseness that makes sense in this “out of this world” context. Sure, some tracks run out of steam and some editing could have been helpful to make things a little bit more compact and add impact, but overall it is a success (despite the fact that the intro of song #4 sounds strangely like Pink Floyd’s The Great Gig in the Sky).

The instrumentation (guitar, bass, drum, keys, horns) moves around the slowly building crescendos in a liquid-like fashion, weaving rich textures, each coming into the spotlight at some point… Until song #9 starts and make you scratch your head and wonder if you’re still listening to the same disc. It is a very catchy number with hard hitting synthetic drums and beautiful vocal harmonies, a way to end the album with a smile.

Some audio samples are available here.