8 Tracks: Of Cloudwatching With Vessels

Music

Vessels as a band have accomplished more than many. In the world of Electronic music it often takes something fairly special to break through the ranks as a group as opposed to an individual building club tracks. The five piece band have been lighting up stages at a vast array of venues amidst some rather varied circles: Berghain and Glastonbury have both played host to them. We caught up with them and asked them for eight tracks. Here is the result…

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Stars Of The Lid - Dopamine Clouds Over Craven Cottage

The undisputed masters of ambient in my opinion. The way they can make one note sound so sonically perfect and harmonically interesting over a ten/twenty minute period is beyond my understanding, but I love it. I’ve been known to lie down on the skengy floor during their shows, even with no clouds to watch – only a ceiling. Worth it though. They make their own clouds.

Stars Of The Lid - Dopamine Clouds Over Craven Cottage

The undisputed masters of ambient in my opinion. The way they can make one note sound so sonically perfect and harmonically interesting over a ten/twenty minute period is beyond my understanding, but I love it. I’ve been known to lie down on the skengy floor during their shows, even with no clouds to watch – only a ceiling. Worth it though. They make their own clouds.
The Orb - Little Fluffy Clouds

A stone cold classic, and rightly so. The dreamy vocal sample of Rickie Lee Jones combined with guitar from Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint work so nicely together, and it’s worth noting that both of those artists persuaded their own record companies not to sue as they liked the track so much.
Nathan Fake - The Sky Was Pink

This is just such a great track. The mood is perfect, with the lushness of the chords combined with the sprawling, squalling synth line that’s not a million miles away from a Hendrix solo in the way that it absolutely tears the sky a new one. We love it enough that we’ve been covering it in our live set for the last few years and it’s still always a highlight.
Max Richter - Illuminations/Clouds

Another great ambient artist. This is from the soundtrack to an HBO series called The Leftovers (for which Max wrote much of the soundtrack for) which is on a kinda post-apocalyptic vibe, but minus the apocalypse bit.
Phillip Glass - Cloudscape (Koyaanisqatsi)

Taken from what is probably one of the scariest films ever made – Koyaanisqatsi. Godfrey Maggio’s wordless masterpiece on human overconsumption/overpopulation. The Phillip Glass soundtrack is all killer, and even contains a piece called Vessels. Perfect!
Clouds - Chained To A Dead Camel

Ok so you’re probably bored of lying on your back staring at the sky by now and need to get up and shake out those pins and needles, huh? What better way to do that than by dancing to this delightfully named piece of terrifyingly filthy techno. Bangin’.
James Holden - A Break In The Clouds

A great track from the wonderfully inventive Holden. I think I’m a fan of pretty much everything he’s released, either himself or on the label Border Community, and this track is no exception.
Radiohead - Videotape

Clouds + Rain + Sunshine = Rainbows. Tenuous, but hey-ho! To finish, here’s the closing track of Radiohead’s In Rainbows. I’ve chosen the Scotch Mist session version, which has a random spoken introduction but a super haunting atmosphere throughout. Love it.