LISTEN: Velcro – ‘Tidal Wave 2009 – 2013’

Curtis Wakeling was tinkering around with his computer one day when he dropped his tiny screwdriver down the back of his desk. He crawled in under the desk, past boxes of old records and footy jumpers, and came across a large gray box with a funny shaped lead running out the back. It was a hard disk drive (HDD) from 2009.

Intrigued, he plugged it in and discovered a series of audio sketches for tunes he had been writing over the last five years.

After having a sandwich, he decided to complete what has become a collection or compilation, of complete songs, which has served as the perfect release for his housemate’s new label Osbourne Again. Tidal Wave (2009-2013) is a limited-edition run of 50 cassettes complete with very lovely artwork or a digital download off bandcamp.

‘Rise’ is a freebie on the bandcamp page and it’s a nice lazy-morning track. Kinda demotivating actually. You can feel hungover just by listening to this one. ‘Dreamboat’ is way more romantic. This is the kinda track that sooths me like a snuggled baby being cooed by its mother. Despite describing an anxiety dream, Curtis executes the perfect dole-pop sound with catchy guitar and sincere vocals.

If you’ve been playing at home than you’ll recall that Curtis recently spent an extended stay in the wonderful city of New York, New York. ‘Stoned’ was written there and is an honest account of what many young Australians experience abroad. Loneliness. Despair. Boredom. And masturbation. Sounds like a good Saturday night because he somehow manages to make it sound like something you’d want. What Curtis does so beautifully in every track is take these experiences and put them into song without a filter. I’ve said before how honest the Velcro music is and this compilation lays it all out for you. It’s quite remarkable that the result is such a warm and easy to listen to record.

Velcro will be launching the tape very soon so we’ll keep you posted but for now check out the other tracks on bandcamp or Curtis’ other band The Ocean Party, who were recently picked up by Spunk. Wow.

UPDATE: Brisbane Tape launch Sep 6th 2013 – details here.

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