Next Forever – Thy Veils (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

When writing about most music, it is easy to define what a song is about and how it sounds and do so reasonably quickly and succinctly. Throw around a few generic labels, drop in another artist or band as a sonic reference point, talk about the groove, pace, and vibe, and you are done. Do all of that, and the reader usually has a fair idea of what the music is about and where it fits into the existing musical landscape. With Thy Veils, such a task is not quite so simple.

It is fair to say that there is a lot going on in their music, so much so that after playing the new album, Next Forever, I wondered if it would be easier to write about what they don’t put into their music. But it is my job to listen, explore, evaluate and communicate, so here we go.

Broadly speaking, Thy Veils make dance music, or they would if we judged music on its beat alone and even those beats, those slices of digital dexterity and deliciousness, ebb and flow between the ambient and the energetic, the faint and a frenetic. But the musical sheens they build on top of those beats make this a truly sumptuous affair and much more than merely dance music.

Just try listening to the title track without words like angelic and ethereal coming to mind or “Fluttering Light” without imagining the first light break over the River Ganges. Play “Sunvault” if you wish to revel in Vangelisian grooves and chilled, late night vibes and in songs such as “Influx” we hear perfectly the collision of Orient and Occident, past and future that underpins this album.

There is an old saying, “East is east, and west is west, and never the twain shall meet.” It is a saying that couldn’t be more wrong. When east meets west, when the past meets the present, when genres collide, when musical boundaries are erased, when art meets music, when the real drifts into the otherworldly, that is when great things happen, and that is where you find Thy Veils.