Although the band’s debut EP dates back to 2016, it is only now that the London-based Shoegaze 4-piece Velveteen reach the long-awaited first album, foreshadowed by the more than positive four-track ‘rentrée’ in 2020, “Bluest Sunshine”, via the excellent Brighton-based Shore Dive Records, a fact the attentive Shelflife Records did not miss.
Velveteen explores an immersive, atmospheric fuzz-laden early-90s shoegaze aesthetic, deftly revised, built on hypnotic rhythms, submerged ethereal harmonies, round deep bass lines, and layered noisy, distorted, hardly blasting, shimmering guitars, at times embroidered with psychedelic spirals and twinkling surf refractions.
The first single, “If You Could”, from Velveteen’s debut album, “Empty Crush”, whilst comfortably nested in the most blissful reverb & delay washes mined from Slowdive, Ride and all the ‘usual suspects’, caressing vocal tones of the very first Primal Scream and the looping, indolent chanting melodies of The Velvets vaguely echo through the mist.
Ceaseless stumbling drum beats glide over an introspective sun-kissed sea, teeming with sparkling chorus-soaked guitar reverberations, swaying hypnotically, filling the haze with soft, sinuous melancholy, to surround, soft elated layered vocal confessions, flying through a whimsical tapestry of ecstatic daydreams, hoping and longing desperately for a second chance at love.
Velveteen‘s 11-track debut album, “Empty Crush”, is slated for release, in ltd. Vinyl /CD & Digital formats, on November 18, 2022, via Shelflife Records. US pre-orders available now via Shelflife Bandcamp, with UK/Europe to follow…
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