Having just released their eagerly awaited new album Helioscope, Leeds based post-rock titans Vessels sent us their thoughts on the albums bonus content – a series of rare b-sides and remixes from the likes of Rolo Tomassi, Worriedaboutsatan and Octopus Project.

Helioscope is available to order now on vinyl, CD or download via Cuckundoo Records website.

Ornafives
The middle part of this began life as a section to ‘Wave Those Arms, Airmen’, which was called ‘Ornament’ at the time (hence the name). When it got excised from that tune, it was then going to be a segue between songs on the first album, but during the ‘White Fields…’ sessions we quickly decided it would be better if we fleshed it out into a full track. When we got home from recording that album, we pretty much finished it within a fortnight and we’ve been playing it live ever since, making it by far the oldest tune on this release. It very nearly made it onto the album, but in the end we felt the tracklisting flowed better without it. I still think it’s one of our best tunes, so I’m glad it’s out there.

The Trap (Mild Eyes Aflenz remix)
Mild Eyes is the pseudonym of Steven Hodson from Kong and Oceansize (RIP). He wrote this while we were on tour together, in the town of Aflenz in Austria, and he’d finished it within a couple of days. The guy works fast! This remix is a rolling, synth led beast, which begins with a clacking piano lament, sneaks in with a massive synth-bass and then drops to an awesome distorted bass guitar in the middle. We were lucky enough to have Kong play at our album launch in Leeds recently, which was a lot of fun.

Monoform (Octopus Project remix)
Our producer John Congleton put us onto these guys, as he was about to record there album straight after ours. They’re an awesome indie/electronica band from Austin, Texas This track is a mash-up of double and triple-speed samples, and totally boxed my head in the first time I listened to it! It’s cheeky as fuck, but ridiculously optimistic and happy (like most Octopus Project tunes).

Art/Choke (Lee J. Malcolm remix)
Remixed by our very own multi-talented ginger, this track is pulled along by an absolute stonker of a drum loop, surrounded by swirling atmospherics and loops from the original mix. Not nearly as filthy as the original, but just as kick-ass.

Meatman (Rolo Tomassi remix)
We played a gig with Rolo Tomassi at last year’s Live At Leeds Festival, and got chatting with them then. This is very faithful to the original mix, in that it has an almost identical structure, and the vocals stay in sequence, but instead of being a delicate, trickling affair like the original, it skitters and twists like someone dropped itching powder down the tune’s shirt. I totally love the drum programming on this track. The big kick in at the end sounds like it has been put through an M83-afier. Bliss.

Heal (Earthkeptwarm remix)
Earthkeptwarm is a side project of Matt from the awesome band Nedry. He’s taken the basic ambience of the track and supported it with some supremely tasteful and gentle breakbeat, overlaid with some lovely effects.

Later Than You Think (Worriedaboutsatan remix)
We’ve been friends with these guys for years now, and they have a great vibe about their music. They’ve only taken a few small samples from the original, but they’ve created a lush, spacious and beautiful minimal-electronica tune as a bed underneath them. This track makes me feel like I’m sitting in the departure lounge for a trans-galactic space-shuttle journey.

Recur (Peatronica remix)
This is one of mine. I basically stretched the outro of the original into a full instrumental track, using the different layers of ambience created throughout the track by the guitars and synths to supply the melodies. The first half is based around some feedback that Lee had laid down, which I used as the chords to underpin everything else, and for the kick-in in the second half I did a load of cutting and splicing of the drum-beats to create a more hectic feel. The guitar line at the end is my favourite melody on the whole album, which is probably why I chose this track to remix.

Everything That Wasn’t There Before
This is another live track that didn’t make the album. It was named after we realised that all of the parts that had formed the seed of the tune at it’s inception had been replaced with new sections that worked better. It was never a consideration to be on the album, as we felt we had moved on slightly from this kind of track, but it still has a good tension to it so we wanted to record it. The singing is done through a fast tremolo, which I personally think sounds ace.

Vessels – Meatman (Rolo Tomassi remix)