- Velvet Season & The Heart of Gold is a new project from Gerry Rooney and Joel Martin, two low-key but respected members of the disco diaspora. Gerry Rooney is perhaps best known as "the other guy" from DJ Harvey's Black Cock project. Rooney used his connections as a record dealer to excavate disco gold that he would later edit with Harvey. Joel Martin has an equally strong track record in turning obscure vinyl into something enduring. As half of Quiet Village, he released some of the best Balearic-tinged music of recent years. Velvet Season sees the pair unite for an exploration of club music's stranger corners, and the results are remarkably strong.
"Truth For Lovers" is an immediately engaging trip into freaky post-disco. It brings to mind the arty jam music of Liquid Liquid or Laughing Light Of Plenty, a group whose members have loose connections to Velvet Season. Shuffling live drumming and an omnipresent bassline command the record amid dubbed out effects and some wacked-out, devotional chanting. It's simple stuff but seriously charismatic all the same. "Coffee Grinder Booty" is an altogether more curious proposition. At 80 BPM, it could have been made for a Danielle Baldelli set circa '79, sounding like sections of tapes from Cosmic Club where he was playing 45s at 33. The track has a sense of weightlessness that gives it an uneasy, queasy feeling. This is Balearic music not for an Ibizan sunset but the end of a drugged up, 27-hour bender.
TracklistA Truth Machine For Lovers
B Coffee Grinder Booty