Tesseract
18 March 2010
Upstairs At The Garage, London


There’s a bit of a buzz around Tesseract right now and it’s deserved. The five piece have recently recorded their first full length, to be entitled One, and the small room Upstairs at The Garage saw familiar faces from a number of record labels. Tonight’s show is actually in support of The Arusha Accord, though the push to the front as Tesseract took the stage showed a healthy interest from the crowd.

Tesseract stand out because they sound unique. Their skilful juxtaposition of ambient, dreamy guitar lines with crunching polyrhythms suck you in as each of their songs move through a variety of moods. These pieces are certainly not designed as “hit singles”, but that’s not to say they are not catchy. Opener, Deception (Concealing Fate Pt.2), carried a massive hook for a chorus and later Lament strays near to a ballad, before bashing you round the head with some seven string technical riffing.

The addition of Dan Tompkins on vocals has really seen the band leap forward. Tompkins possesses an incredible range and is able to switch from a roar to a high pitch vocal in a heartbeat. He casts this across a taught musical tapestry provided by the band. At times guitars and drums appear to head off in different directions before resolving with an impressive sense of togetherness.

This five song set certainly whet the appetite for the forthcoming album. Now if one of the watching record company bods could please sign them up sharpish so we can get our hands on that release.

Tesseract set list:
Deception (Concealing Fate Pt.2) / The Impossible (Concealing Fate Pt.3) / April / Lament / Acceptance (Concealing Fate Pt.1)



LINKS:
Tesseract