There’s something palpable within the shrouded layers of fuzzed-out guitar, delicate vocals, and hypnotic rhythms of Velvet. It lurks under the soft yet heavy sheets of reverb, vague in form but muscular in aura. The lyrics that share its air are mysterious enough to protect its identity from the wider world, but for those who have grappled with emotionally cold nights and rocky mental health, its presence is likely familiar.
While Neon Cathedral makes its proper debut with this 4-track EP (save for one-off single “Anniversary” re-leased in 2020), Velvet is not the shoegaze/darkwave band’s first foray into complex musical emotions. The core duo is half of what was once Haniwa, another Oklahoma music project that wrapped deep meanings within metaphoric paradoxes. Where that project clamored to tense synth and vocal heights, however, Neon Cathedral is far more subdued, sinking into its gothic moments of stillness with hushed singing and blackhole guitars. It’s a different beast entirely.
There are plenty of brilliant aspects to Velvet — the cavernous mixing, the smooth key changes between songs — but what it does best is convey that palpable something, which may seem like pain at first but isn’t quite. One can easily trace the depression, loneliness, and heartbreak in Neon Cathedral’s somber lyrics and hazy guitar distortion, but Velvet isn’t simply about hard-ship or even catharsis. It’s in the suspended middle, where scars form from wounds and dreams are reforged. Here, between these cusps of loss and hope, recovery is conceived.
This article appears in Gusty fauna.