Artist Spotlight
The Veldt Release New Album
In a single glance, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell that The Veldt is a rock outfit working out of the underground rather than the mainstream – their music has all the trappings of something elite and polished to the finest of details, right down to the contemporary indie influences that so many legendary artists in the genre have been embracing in a bid to keep up with the rising interest in post-punk acts. In the bones of their composing, we can find traces of everything from the shoegaze of old to first-gen noise music, and although this can be said of a lot of players in the domestic underground, The Veldt’s album Entropy is the Mainline to God might be one of the first instances of a modern alternative release garnering the level of attention it has in this era of new waves within a once insular scene.
BANDCAMP: https://theveldtmusic.bandcamp.com/
“Check Out Your Mind,” “New Blood,” “Slave Ship Serenade,” and “Red Flagz” are more harmony-focused than some of the other material on the album, but there isn’t a single track included in Entropy is the Mainline to God that doesn’t feature a mood as the centerpiece of the song. Whether they’re putting everything on the line in metaphorical carnage ala “Requiem for Emmett Till” or getting a little more multi-interpretive and specifically enigmatic with “Sweeter” and “Electric Revolution,” you don’t have to be a professional critic to recognize just how much of a personal investment The Veldt so clearly has in everything they’re singing about in this full-length release; perhaps even more so than we’ve seen in the past thirty years of their output.
I like the instrumental play in “Walk With the Spirits,” “Get Away (Interpolation),” and “New Blood,” and while it’s more of an understated component of the catharsis in “Soul Power,” it’s always a very provocative point of allure in Entropy is the Mainline to God. I get the impression from The Veldt that they don’t want to be regarded in the same light so many of their one-dimensional rivals in the underground have been in the indie press; had this not been the case, I don’t think they would have taken as intellectual a route when structuring the best moments in their new album. There’s an appreciation for intricacy here that is anything but commonplace, anywhere in the industry, and it could play a big part in bringing this act the kind of spotlight they’ve spent so many years earning.
The Veldt drops a fine new LP in Entropy is the Mainline to God that lives up to every bit of the hype it’s attracted on both sides of the pond this year, and while I wouldn’t say it’s the only rock record you should listen to before 2023 is over, there aren’t many that have the sort of compositional versatility its tracklist boasts in spades. Entropy is the Mainline to God has the framework of an alternative rock record but the cosmetic polish of an indie pop affair, and when married together, these two factors produce something that is uniquely The Veldt.
Sebastian Cole
Album Review
Cognitive Constellation Corps blurs humanity and technology on “Thank You for Your Feedback (I)” album
In a world of notifications and automated responses, algorithms, and feedback requests, Cognitive Constellation Corps finds something unexpectedly human inside the machinery. “Thank You for Your Feedback (I)” is an alt-pop exploration of connection, isolation, communication, and the increasingly complicated relationship between people and technology, transforming familiar procedural language into something else.
Created by Brooke Tamsin Clevenger, a Belfast-based artist, the project’s principal composer, lyricist, producer, and conceptual director, the album is deliberately constructed around what happens to human emotion when our lives are increasingly structured by systems that process information rather than necessarily understand feelings. The album opens with “Opening Loop (i),” which introduces that world through the idea of repetition, linking software loops to the habits we humans learn in modern life.
Followed by “Signal Received (i),” the track becomes more fragile, a mix of bubbling electronic movement and the promise of waiting for a response. It picks up the strange emotional weight that can be behind something as simple as a digital signal. “Thank You For Your Feedback (i)” examines the pressure to be constantly evaluated, and “Echo Chamber (i)” reflects on how digital interaction creates intimacy and amplifies alienation. “The Curve of Clarity (i)” is a road toward understanding where data and human realization begin to converge.
On the production side, the project explores electronic textures without allowing its technological concept to overwhelm its emotional core. “Threadbare, Threadshare (i)” turns the fatigue of constant communication into an interesting concept. “The Response Loop (You’re Still Talking)” injects a sense of urgency with a faster, more club-friendly beat that mixes early-80s electronic music with state-of-the-art sounds.
“Harmonic Distortion (i)” continues the album’s obsession with emotion that has been filtered, and “Always (i) [Sevahem]” is an appropriate closer, reflecting on organic feeling and ancient human knowledge through the prism of digital sound. “Thank you for Your Feedback” is a tech-driven concept that is always aware of the person behind the screen. Cognitive Constellation Corps is cerebral and electronic and conceptually ambitious while remaining emotionally accessible.
Artist Spotlight
Shawn Brown raises the volume on love, loss, and survival in “What a Way to Go”
Shawn Brown’s new single, “What a Way to Go,” is a guitar-heavy rock-pop anthem that makes doomed young love, instability, and survival something ferociously cathartic. The single, produced by celebrated musician and producer Grecco Buratto, fully embraces the scope of its story. Brown doesn’t turn heartbreak into a quiet, inward experience, but he energizes it, giving it drive and urgency.
“What a Way to Go” is a relationship against impossible odds, and the emotional tension is the clash between a world that feels like it’s falling apart and the stubbornness of two people who won’t let go of each other. That tension is what makes the song dramatic, but it also allows Brown to aim for a bigger, more explosive sound.
Recorded at The Trench in Portland with engineer Gregg Williams and the full Shawn Brown Band and trusted creative team, including Ben Landsverk, Jeff Langston, Ned Failing, Tiago Becker, and Juan Garcia Petri. Their combined presence adds to the muscular, expansive character of the single that one would expect from an anthem of this magnitude.
Brown handles the emotional commitment with confidence, true to its survivalist spirit, and pairs the guitars with a performance that feels immediate rather than remote. “What a Way to Go” is one of Shawn Brown’s most electrifying releases, blending raw rock power with the emotional openness of a love story that won’t go quietly. It’s raw, loud, passionate, and unapologetically alive.
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