Veldt - The Cause: The Effect

A healthy regard for John Barry, a love of Scott Walker and a willingness to explore the darker side of beats culture give Veldt a distinct place on the musical map. Vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Lloyd Wadey, guitarist/producer James Waterland and 'cellist/keyboardist Mike Alexander combine to create a textured, brooding sound, evocative of the melancholia-tinged urban landscape which their lyrics reveal - a world of paranoia and self-doubt, of obsessive desires and failed ambitions, of endless mornings full of regret... yet shot through with tantalising glimpses of hope.One spin of Veldt's gorgeously multi-orchestrated mix of John Barry/Scott Walker - sweeping strings, moody tremelo guitar and spacious Morricone-esque soundscapes - and I'm skipping through fields and thanking God for the gift of life - only with a stone in my shoe. The dark lyrics of the catchy chorus: I'm walking in silence through the pain of her resurrection / I love the shadows the world she never mentions, mesh with the Portishead-like zither, to add shades of mystery, even mournfulness. But the glorious orchestration - helped along by a Fender Rhodes, oboe and cello - stretches the emotions from dark troughs to dizzy heights. So remember Veldt - sounds a bit like svelte, which describes them well: polished and graceful with a sprinkling of urbanity. - Glasswerks