New Music: Velocity Made Good – Reeling

The new EP from Velocity Made Good, Big Breakers, has an exciting way of manipulating hard-edged slivers of sound from old-school EBM and industrial.

On Reeling, the duo gives them a rock attitude, but this is not industrial rock – at least not like you’ve heard or imagined it before. The vocals are an early indication that the band is sonically subversive, similar in style at times to Jean-Luc De Meyer’s iconic marshalling of the beats of a youthful Front 242. The bark and order to dance are fuelled by a post-punk passion here, interspersed with whispered refrains that heighten the already tense atmosphere.

You can feel the pressures of the song build around you; the production of Josh Baxter has an unvarnished and loose sound that is in tune with how Reeling takes on electronic music from that rock perspective. That’s no doubt aided by how it was formed when the band played live, using drums and not programmes to drive it along, adding an organic unpredictability. Like hearing LCD Soundsystem teaming up with Gurriers in a mosh pit, you’ll not know what happens next – and that creates a lot of the pleasure to be found here.  

“Reeling doesn’t follow any logical pop structure; it goes in every direction at once,” states the band. “Where we usually take months on a song, this one came together in a few flow sessions with Josh. It didn’t feel like we were writing it, more like we were trying to keep up with it. Live, that still hasn’t changed, we’re still taming it.”

Big Breakers is out now on KERNCENTRALE and can be found in digital and vinyl formats on Bandcamp. It’s also streaming on Apple Music and Spotify. Connect with Velocity Made Good on Instagram for other listening options for the EP, plus details of live dates in The Netherlands this month.

Header photo by Lennard Fopma