Ghost - Velvet Parade (Kasumuen Records)

In what promises to be a huge weekend, this Saturday (May 3) Velvet Parade will be in Adelaide ahead of their Japanese tour, supported by The Cold Field and Electric Badger. 

Velvet Parade is Cold Harbour's Vincent J. Kramer is on guitar, Fraudband's Don Drum is on drums, The Coves' Pete Azzopardi is on bass, Ashley Jones (from Matt Malone and The Holy Spirits) is on keys, and (former Adelaide boy) Ripley Hood on vox ...

Sorry, why is Rip a former Adelaide boy?

Well, he found the railway station, is what I heard...

Anyway. He's back in town fronting an outfit composed of Melbourne luminaries, and I'm gleefully told that this is a fine band indeed.

So, let's listen to the EP.

"She is the Knife" sneaks the package open like Morricone via Netflix. The music is a slow-scorch, and when it comes, Rip's vocal is a short film in itself. In fact, Rip's vocal is positively big-screen; even though it's often understated, there's significant sensory depth here.

Now you know that any band opening with a song which draws you in slowly like this takes a risk. So the band must know this damn well, so I suppose they want folks to either get where they're coming from straight out, or bugger off, rather than pretend to be something they ain't.

The first song snaps back as the majestic sweep of “The Ghost” opens, before bringing us right down, and up, again in a series of green hills. If we haven't guessed before, this EP woos us, strokes us, connects with our own private yearnings. \

Er, yes, it's a bit of a seduction. But without the unpleasantness; in fact as the EP progresses it becomes increasingly lovely: "Be Strange With Me" beckons us into a romantic bedroom ... and the last, "Stranger in my Heart" is a cinematic crescendo to the gorgeous burning of the first three songs. I will add: they're best appreciated at volume, because Velvet Parade have a striking intensity which will get into your DNA.

Sure, the Velvet Parade may not be for everyone - or even you; but when I read that the term “gothic” has been used to describe them I just sigh in disgust. What rot. Most confining musical descriptors are fairly irrelevant - useful only for guying an algorithm on Pootify. Sure, you could call them that. You could drop them into the Austin City Limits Music Festival and they'd fit right in - and probably shine above much of the competition.

Mixed by the band, and Loki Lockwood (who also mastered), the overall sound is exactly right ... creepy and moving; where others may have been tempted to polish and gloss this band, they sound immediate and ... well, reach out and touch.

This is from a recent live review: "The controlled intensity of their performance proved that Velvet Parade know how to build a landscape – one that invites you to sit with your shadows. Each song bled into the next, weaving a theatrical, immersive experience."

Velvet Parade also play Shotkickers in Thornbury in Melbourne on Saturday, May 17. 

1/2

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