One cannot be too ambitious, can they? No, of course not, you’ve heard the sayings; the world’s yer oyster, the sky’s the limit, no sleep till Brooklyn, etc. Advice that Oceansize clearly ingested whole prior to recording their debut album, 2003’s swelling ‘Effloresce’, which soared through a metaphorical stratosphere or two, at least, on a journey towards the event horizon. You might have called it titanium reinforced progressive rock, or a post-rock space odyssey, but whatever it was it felt impressively accomplished, complex, intense and hypnotic. Only they did, in retrospect, seem to have overshot themselves and ultimately burnt up on re-entry. Follow-up ‘Everyone Into Position’ was blunt and leaden by comparison. You can have all the technique in the world when building your ship, but if you can’t harness the wind in your sails, or the sun in your solar panels, when you’re set to launch, you’re really no more than a mass hulk of raw materials.
A revitalised Oceansize however return with ‘Frames’, striving very much upward once more, striding with floating steps and regaining much of the fluidity and reach they lost in the interim. ‘Commemorative___T-shirt’ picks up very much where ‘Effloresce’ left off, the bastard child of Tool and Pink Floyd born in a vacuum, unbothered by gravity, becoming gradually overwhelming and the kind of epic that stretches for light years. ‘Unfamiliar’ continues contrary to its title, like a young and raptured Billy Corgan’s mind mined by Mars Volta. ‘Old Friend Of The Christies’ is possibly the most intently post-rock track they have released thus far, like early-mid era Mogwai and the work of very steady hands. Most impressive though are perhaps ‘Savant’, ‘Only Twin’ and 10-minute closer ‘This Frame’, employing as they do vast sounding orchestration for the first time, pushing their sound over the lip into genuinely quite staggering realms (and Muse needn’t be mentioned too loudly). One cannot be too ambitious.