A number of Bristol artists have soundtracked the early morning waning of post-club buzz over the years. Vessel, part of Bristol's Young Echo collective, feels like someone who's been there and experienced those hours many times over. Vessel is one of many monikers used by Bristol resident Seb Gainsborough, who has gained some momentum via a series of 12"s released over the past year. None of those offered an indication of just how wide open his vision would become on this debut full-length. His music falls roughly into the tenuous category of "non-dance dance music," although he's not averse to constructing tracks that are eminently danceable. This album's "Court of Lions" offers up a quietly euphoric type of mazy techno that feels made for huge sound systems.
Of those prior releases, 2011's Wax Dance EP occasionally circled the plastic haze of chillwave, perhaps offering a clue as to why Gainsborough ended up releasing Order of Noise on Tri Angle. Many of those rougher edges were smoothed over on the title track of the Standard EP from earlier this year, although Order of Noise goes some way to reclaiming them. Gainsborough's music as Vessel has already gained comparisons to Actress, and it's not hard to see why. Like R.I.P., this is an album that requires listeners to put in some work, to extract their own sense of logic and rhythm from its scattershot surface. The path from the leaden bong fug of "Stillborn Dub" through to the light and bloopy "Lache" isn't apparent at first, especially as the latter veers off on so many tangents; around the midway point, it feels like an entirely separate track has encroached, ushering in a whole wave of contrasting feelings.
That particular part in "Lache" offers a useful entry point into Order of Noise as a whole, highlighting how adept Gainsborough is at subtly warping his vision in unexpected ways. It's the type of approach that can easily end up unfocused, with separate strands set in motion that end up dangling in the ether. But tiny motifs emerge that tie everything together. The processed sighs that pockmark "Silten" give it a sluggish feel, something that loops around again later in the barren slo-mo grind of "Villaine". And Gainsborough is fond of stretched-out mood pieces. "2 Moon Dub" is the embodiment of that malaise at finding a club winding down for the night after endlessly plodding through puddled streets under the promise of something better. "Aries" goes even further, dredging up feelings of desperate 4 a.m. glances between strangers across a rapidly emptying bar.
There's no overall sense of narrative to Order of Noise, but the depth of the production leaves itself open to interpretation. Dig past the early Warp stylings of "Scarletta", and there's an intriguing mesh of industrial noise and balmy ambience. Some of those tweaks occasionally bear an Aphex-like fondness for tinkering. On "Plane Curves" it initially sounds like Gainsborough has mixed a percussion loop far too high in the mix, only for it to become a wonderfully cantankerous center on multiple plays. That desire to bring agitation into an unexpected realm is a particularly Bristolian trait, whether it's in Mark Stewart's aggro-funk workouts or through Portishead adding an unanticipated analog bite to their sound circa Third. Order of Noise subtly pulls on similar feelings of antagonism, in the process splitting open some welcome cracks in a well-traveled path.
