Vessels: premiere 'Deflect The Light' video via Fader

Vessels are proud to reveal the video for their latest single ‘Deflect The Light’, a collaboration with The Flaming Lips and featuring vocals from the inimitable Wayne Coyne. https://youtu.be/shix1v69jnk

Speaking exclusively with The Fader, the band explain the video’s origins; "Naturally we were totally booning to work with The Flaming Lips on our new single, ‘Deflect The Light’. The video seemed to suggest itself as the story was already all there, fully formed by Wayne's incredible lyrics. He's created a totally bizarre world within the song and the video is a pretty vivid continuation of that - It looks exactly how the story did already in our minds."

‘Deflect the Light’ is the second single from Vessels’ forthcoming album The Great Distraction, which is due for release on 29 September via Different Recordings. "It is always brave of any young artist to ask The Flaming Lips to collaborate with them,” The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne told The Fader. “Usually we (The Flaming Lips) just take over the whole song .. Ha.. But Vessels has magnificently kept us at bay and they've created a swirling hypnotic vibe for our little story to live in!!!”

The Great Distraction is a major evolution in Vessels’ musical history, also featuring collaborations with John Grant, Vincent Neff (Django Django) and Katie Harkin (Sky Larkin).

Where those collaborations embody the hallmark of a band pushing forward, it’s the unrelenting, hypnotic intensity of instrumental tracks like first single ‘Radiart’ and the fragmented, complex beauty of ‘Radio Decay’ that anchor Vessels’ essential evolution in core elements of their past. “A few of the longer instrumental tracks on the album strike a balance between long, dirty, polyrhythmic techno and the math-rock, post-rock band we used to be, and that’s never left us,” says drummer Tim Mitchell.

In that respect, The Great Distraction represents a band analysing its own meaning and balancing the stark realities of life, death and ageing with the explosive bursts of energy that have been a signature, albeit in different styles, across every album.

“We’re not 18 anymore,” Martin notes. “I think this album represents a convergence of where we are in our personal lives and where the band is in its journey. And it all seems to be happening at a time when the world is quite a strange place. The music acknowledges a bleakness and tension, but I think our response is optimistic and euphoric.”

It’s a sense of reflection that inadvertently applied to how The Great Distraction got its title - with the band looking inwards, as well as outwards, inspiration came from an unexpected source. “The title came from a misheard lyric that John Grant had written,” Martin admits. “To us, it resonates in a few different ways. Personally, I like art that has a slower impact like that.”

It’s a sentiment that, in many ways, perfectly sums up Vessels’ persistent patience. Now four albums and over a decade into their shape-shifting life as a band, it would be easy to say The Great Distraction is the decisive culmination of the time and effort it’s taken to reach this point. It’s not, because in Vessels’ gloriously ceaseless search, this feels like a beginning.

“We’re always learning and trying new stuff, and the set-up has evolved as the records have evolved,” explains Vessels’ producer and principal songwriter Lee J Malcolm. “The exploration of sound to me is so exciting and that, for me, is the catalyst for everything.

Pete agrees: “Lee once said that ‘it’s a puzzle we might not solve’, but this, this feels like we’ve landed on something.”

Vessels are Lee J Malcolm, Martin Teff, Peter Wright, Tim Mitchell and Tom Evans. Vessels’ fourth full-length album The Great Distraction is due for release on 29 September via Different Recordings. Vessels will headline London’s Village Underground on 4 October.

Tracklist

1. Mobilise
2. Deflect The Light (feat. The Flaming Lips)
3. Position
4. Radiart
5. Deeper In A Sky (feat. Harkin)
6. Gløwer
7. Trust Me (feat. Vincent Neff)
8. Everyone Is Falling
9. Radio Decay
10. Erase The Tapes (feat. John Grant)

Live Dates

• Aug 17 – Selfridges – London, UK
• Sep 30 – Brudenell Social Club – Leeds, UK
• Oct 3 – Sticky Mike’s – Brighton, UK
• Oct 4 – Village Underground – London UK
• Oct 5 – Soup Kitchen – Manchester, UK
• Oct 6 – Club Ifor Bach – Cardiff, UK
• Oct 7 – Art School – Glasgow, UK
• Oct 14 – Batofar – Paris, FR
• Oct 18 – ADE – Amsterdam, NL
• Oct 19 – Rotown – Rotterdam, NL
• Oct 20 – Het Bos – Antwerp, BE
• Oct 26 – Prince Charles – Berlin, DE
• Oct 27 – Kleiner Döner – Hamburg, DE
• Oct 28 – Artheater – Cologne, DE
• Nov 1 – Razzmatazz – Barcelona, ES
• Nov 2 – Siroco – Madrid, ES

Album pre-order: http://found.ee/thegreatdistraction