Vasa

‘Smashletes’, the opening track of ‘Colours’, is a mere 41 seconds long but manages to capture the essence of what lies in store with its frenetic guitars, lurching riffs and energetic drums. From there, it’s head-first into the appropriately named ‘As Long As It Doesn’t Explode’ a high-octane, fully-charged tour de force.

It sounds as if Glasgow’s Vasa have taken the genre of post-rock and strapped it to a rocket. The amusingly titled ‘Fat Ronaldo’ has a grandiose riff at its core with guitar lines spiralling out at various tangents, while previous single ‘Not A Cop’ hints at Foals in their more adventurous moments. Post-rock can often be seen as quite a dark, brooding genre but there is something joyous and almost euphoric about Vasa’s music, revelling in its free-form nature and unconventional song structures.

‘Punched’ offers a slower and more delicate respite from the melee of guitars before ‘The Angry Dome’ brings things right back to the intensity of before (clearly they embrace the post-rock tradition of gnomic song titles). It sounds strange to say it, but there is an almost pop feel to some of the melodies at times. It would be going a bit far to say Vasa are the One Direction of post-rock but they’ve succeeded in making a bold and confident-sounding album that is sure to surprise anyone willing to give ‘Colours’ a chance.