Velah
Skeleton House / Rose Wave
2012
Velah’s Skeleton House / Rose Wave 7″ is something special. There’s always been something a bit mysterious to their sound. For this release they embraced that side of the band’s personality.
“Skeleton House” is a reflective number haunted by a tinkling piano sound. Where some Velah songs shower you in layers of reverberating guitars, this one is content to let the melody come front and center. The sparse verses fill out nicely when the chorus comes around. There’s a level of calmness throughout, which makes the song’s ending crescendo all the more effective. Velah’s restraint persists on “Rose Wave”. Guitar melodies, vocal harmonies and controlled swells serve them well.
I love unique packaging ideas, and this one is pretty crazy. Velah puts these things together by hand. There’s the black 7″ itself, but that’s just the start. There’s a key, a skull and symbol cloth thingy, some chalk and a cool little pop up house. I’m not going to pretend to know what it all means, but it’s pretty neat. Everything comes nestled in a box for little skull face guy to peek out of.
Where to get it:
