Label: Easy Eye Sound
Released: 8th October 2021
Rating: ★★★★
To call an album timeless is perhaps one of the greatest compliments one can pay. It’s certainly one that applies to The Velveteers’ debut ‘Nightmare Daydream’. Often scuzzy, fuzzy and psychedelic – like on opener ‘Dark Horse’ – you can hear the hands of producer Dan Auberbach, he of Black Keys fame, all over it.
Not that that’s to diminish the trio’s remarkable talent. Made up of vocalist and guitarist Demi Demitro and dual drummers Baby Pottersmith and Jonny Fig, it’s far from a conventional line-up. But boy, does it work. When in full flow, The Velveteers wail like few others. ‘Motel #27’ thumps and growls like a primal beast, while ‘Father of Lies’ is a sleeker, sleazier beast. With the bombast turned down, there’s still plenty to enjoy – the album’s title-track twinkles before hitting its groove, while ‘Charmer And The Snake’ has a hypnotic hip-shake to its slithering magnetism.
‘Nightmare Daydream’ is an album that refuses to be buttoned down to any one thing, and yet does them all brilliantly. You can’t say fairer than that.
