Live Review: Vessels share uplifting new track with Anna Of The North

‘Had A Love’ is UK five-piece Vessels' first slice of new material in 2016, since the wordless '4AM' in February. Their new single serves as a teaser for their new album out in 2017 on Different Recordings, the electric imprint of [PIAS]. While Vessels may not have been plugging new material all year, they’ve definitely been doing live shows justice, playing Glastonbury, Green Man, Melt! and Bozar Electronic Arts Festival. Vessels have established themselves as one of the most stimulating live bands within electronic music – and with an dedicated fanbase to match.

For this new release, they've teamed up with Scandinavian pop duo Anna of the North. It serves as a perfect example of a great collaboration - a demonstration of two artists coming together, neither making up the slack, only lifting one another further.

The track starts off downtempo, clearly honouring Anna’s vocals, the dreamy nuances of her voice and its inescapable allure. She muses on a past love, or a current love that she has fallen out of sorts with. ‘Had A Love’ is tinged with melancholy that only serves to make the track’s progression more exciting.

It’s as the track progresses that the minimalism falls away and house-like synths lead into a euphoric wall of sound. It’s big and uplifting and full of energy, with the development you’d normally expect of Caribou; it’s dance music with a destination. It leaves you with a thump, in the same way that having had a love does too.

Words by Lloyd Crackett

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FEEL SOME '4AM' MELANCHOLY WITH VESSELS LATEST FORAY INTO ELECTRONIC 

ANNA OF THE NORTH TAKES 'US' ON