I'm not complaining, though. Writing about a band (the names Josh and Angela are the only clues given as to who they actually are – and there's speculation that Angela doesn't exist) as utterly absurd as Velvet Cacoon is something I've wanted to do for quite a while, and honestly, I was actually considering just writing a review of it earlier based on the vinyl edition. For those who don't know the story, Velvet Cacoon is a Portland based ambient black metal band that extols the virtues of DXM, the active ingredient in Robitussin. They made a name for themselves spreading rumors about the band's supposed ecofascist activism, the death of a band member in the Cascades, and accounts of incredibly violent live shows. On the album I'm reviewing now, they allegedly used a homemade invention called a “diesel harp” - a guitar with diesel-powered pickups amplified through aquariums. Of course, all of these things were later revealed to probably be completely untrue (except the diesel harp thing; in case your common sense hadn't tipped you off as you were reading it, Josh openly admitted it was after the album's release). Eventually they put recordings of Portland-based dream pop artist, Korouva (listen to this stuff; it's good) on their MySpace page as their own and faced further controversy after the plagiarism accusations. The band's response: to admit that everything about them is a joke, that they're horrible people and an excellent example of what too many drugs will do to a person, and announce a still-unreleased new album. Of course, this presented a hell of a lot more questions than it answered, and the band's intentions are even more unclear at this point than they were before.
Recently, Southern Lord picked up a couple of the recordings that were theirs to reissue. Northsuite, an earlier recording, and Genevieve, which is their actual debut album. And for a “joke” band, this is a really great, really powerful album.
At the core of the sound here is fuzzed-out, noisy black metal. Droning ambient passages hide surprising melodies and drugged out, distant vocals. A thick, distorted haze surrounds everything, from the drugged out lullabies presented on “P.S. Nautical” and “Avalon Polo” to the sleepy clockwork guitars of “Laudanum” that fade out for a vocal break and then again for an ambient passage toward the end of the track. The title track probably sounds the most like traditional black metal, with fast drumming and buzzsaw guitars providing the backdrop for tortured raspy vocals and subtle keyboard holding down the melody. The last track, “Bete Noir” takes up a good third of the playing time of the album. This track is the album's comedown, a slowly building ambient track that exercises considerable restraint, consisting mostly of ambient noise and layered keyboard melodies, all hanging in the background for 17 minutes, getting noticeably louder and then disappearing completely in the last 30 seconds.
As for finding further information on this band, you're essentially limited to what Wikipedia and Google searches turn up. They haven't really maintained an official website (their current site features nothing more than an e-mail link and a picture of a lady on a bike) in quite some time, and they will probably never tour. Still, they're responsible for some of the most oddly atmospheric black metal in recent memory, and I have to highly recommend it to anyone who's into that sort of thing.
Wrote by Soup
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