Tom Vek - Leisure Seizure

We don’t mean to alarm anyone, but Tom Vek might be a Time Lord. It’s not just that his music has always seemed a step ahead of its time, but who else could lose six years between records and seemingly not even break step?

It was in 2005 that Vek released ‘We Have Sound’ - an album that may not have sold like the proverbial hot cakes, but certainly made the green shoots of what we’d now refer to as ‘the blogs’ gorge themselves on its astoundingly accomplished wares. By 2011 many of those early adopters have moved on to bigger things. All of a sudden the return of Tom Vek seems like an excuse for a national holiday.

It turns out, thankfully, that tales of breakdowns and walk outs are far from the truth. With more time spent than would be strictly healthy for any other act, ‘Leisure Seizure’ is exactly the record that fans would have hoped to hear.

‘Aroused’, with its orient tinged percussion, shows an immediacy beyond what came before, almost justifying the years of production in the process. ‘World Of Doubt’ displays post punk tendencies, while ‘A.P.O.L.O.G.Y’ may not be the most inventive moment, but hits the target nonetheless.

With a mix of the familiar (comeback single ‘A Chore’ is the perfect transition between albums) and the new, the off kilter chimes of ‘We Do Nothing’ spell it out the best: ‘I can’t believe you’ve taken all of this time.’

While it’s easy to remember ‘We Have Sound’ through rose tinted spectacles, it’s not difficult to see ‘Leisure Seizure’ as a leap forward. Still one of our greatest enigmas; in a world with Tom Vek, everything seems possible.