Vessel EP
Warner Music
The Kite String Tangle’s debut EP lives up to expectations as a solid, emotional, ambient album by an exceptionally gifted singer.
The real highlight of Vessel is Danny Harley’s smooth indie soul vocals that sweep over the bright synth harmonies, cresting and falling in lush vertical melodic movements. As a side effect, the instrumentation does sometimes feel a little lacking. The sample textures are good but tend to repeat without developing. What If stands as a contradiction to this, with a subtle build that leads to a dirt synth outro that contrasts the album’s ethereal nature.
Harley pulls off the ambient feel well, especially in Words and Given The Chance, where the repeating motifs, atmospheric synth and development of rhythmically minimal verses to complex choruses really lift up the tracks.
What’s The Point? works more as an indie pop anthem than the closing track to an electronic album and probably could have reached its potential as such with a bit more working on, but it’s still a solid track, if an odd choice for closer.
SHAUN COWE
