UK band, Vessels have released their new video for “Mobilise”, the lead track from their current release The Great Distraction out tomorrow via Different Recordings.

The clip features members of the band plus the British Jet Ski champion free-rider, the video was filmed at the mouth of the Thames Estuary and includes cinematic shots of the Red Sands Forts. These armed towers cast an ominous shadow over proceedings but are illuminated with strobes and lights.

Director Alexander Darby on the video:

“The track felt to me like an eerie dystopian call to arms, something set in a futuristic and dangerous place. But it also combines such a strong build with a more playful sensibility – especially at the end – so I thought it would be cool to make the hero of it a gas-masked Jet Ski punk.”

Speaking about the track itself, the band say: “’Mobilise’ feels like the heart of the album and the band. It has an energy that captures everything we’re about with its locking polyrhythms and sense of yearning – full of hope and melancholy. We definitely get the shivers when we play it live, and the bliss out section in the middle is a highlight of the set.”

In that respect, The Great Distraction represents a band analyzing its own meaning and balancing the stark realities of life, death and aging 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. They will be touring Europe this fall.

Vessels
The Great Distraction
Track Listing:

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)

Vessels
Tour Dates

09/30 Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social
10/03 Brighton, UK @ Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar
10/04 London, UK @ Village Underground
10/05 Manchester, UK @ Soup Kitchen
10/06 Cardiff, UK @ Clwb Ifor Bach
10/07 Glasgow, UK @ Art School
10/14 Paris, FR @ Batofar
10/18 Amsterdam, NL @ ADE
10/19 Rotterdam, NL @ Rotown
10/20 Antwerp, BE @ Het Bos
10/26 Berlin, DE @ Prince Charles
10/27 Hamburg, DE @ Kleiner Doner
10/28 Cologne, DE @ Artheater
11/01 Barcelona, ES @ Razzmatazz
11/02 Madrid, ES @ Siroco