RELAPSE (EP)

This is one EXCELLENT EP - well worth it if you can get a hold of it. Not entirely sure why it was released in a way though as the first track 'Amputee' was released on the 1st EP as the title track and 'Relapse' was a re-record of 'Ebb' from the Amputee EP. I've not heard this earlier EP, though, so I can't comment whether those versions were better or worse.

As "Amputee" and "You Wish" were both re-recorded for their unbelievable masterpiece debut album "Effloresce", those tracks are kind of covered by that, so I won't comment on those other than saying both tracks are great - especially "You Wish" which totally rocks!

So I'll just talk about the track "Relapse". This is one really good piece of Classic Oceansize, which stands up really well to their other 10-minuters (and is in a similar vein) like 'Massive Bereavement', 'Red Rag to a Bear' and 'Voorhees'. It starts building slowly with classic Oceansize unworldly guitary sounds, building to a slowish steady pulsing rhythm and muttered vocals, rising in volume and power more and more until reaching a fantastic rock-out crescendo.

A fabulous piece of Spacey prog - this would have fit well onto "Effloresce" if only there had been room.

Well good!

The Relapse EP contains one non-album track that is suitably called Relapse. Great, I like it when things aren't unnecessarily over-complicated.

Relapse isn't second rate in any way, it was probably just too long to fit on the already oversized Efforescense. For once, this track justifies all space-rock references that are bestowed on Oceansize. It has 2.30 minutes of ambient post-rock picking at the start before it launches into an excellent bass guitar driven groove that Colin Edwin would have been proud of. The vocals are mesmerizing and beautiful, the guitars wide and spacey. The second half of the track sticks closer to the ambitious indie prog of Efforescense.

An EP with 10 minutes of unreleased music is collectors material by default. The 3 stars can't obviously be compared to a full length 3 star album, they merely serve to indicate that it's a very good track.