If, like me, your references for shoe gaze come largely from a white, art-school, M4 corridor hinterland then The Veldt are the perfect reminder that often the best musical ideas tend to appear simultaneously in small pockets of creativity across a myriad of musical landscapes and geographical locations. The common factor has more to do with artistic references and mind set that it does with the flimsy journalistic constructs of scenes and fashion.
And whilst fellow dreamscape travellers such as The Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine were creating their sonorous sounds, The Veldt, from their North Carolina base were using a whole different pallet of sound as they headed towards a similar musical destination. Marvin Gaye and Sun Ra where just as much a reference point as the more obvious and more recent reverb drenched post-punk scene and through the years they have created music that is as beautiful as it is unique.
In a Quiet Room comes from their latest EP The Shocking Fuzz of Your Electric Fur which in referencing none other than ee cummings again hints at the depths and wide ranging references that they employ when approaching their craft.
Actually, forget all of that, the fact that they release their music on a label named 5 BC (gedit?) tells you everything you need to know.
[…] The Veldt has always been a fascinating concept. Two black school kids in 80’s Raleigh, North Carolina dressing like European New Romantics and listening to the underground releases of London’s infamous 4AD label. A bold stance to take but one which led to the gathering together of like minded individuals and the result of course was The Veldt; a mercurial blend of the sonorous dreamscapes drifting in from across the Atlantic and more soulful and jazz infused homegrown grooves. […]