VELVET VELOUR Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Tresydos has been doing a great job of shaping out a niche within the minimal-tech-house-trance scene, with the recent spate of vinyl releases solidly firming up the label's vibe. That vibe is crystallised perfectly on the first part of their Number 10 series, where Anderson opens proceedings up with the dreamy but playful trip of 'Synchronize Our Moves' before Velvet Velour takes things into cheeky mid 00s territory with the wriggling samples and catchy synth hooks of 'Yesyesyes'. Babu switches things up with a nudge towards Italo which brings a refreshing twist to the record before Penelope finishes the record off with a quintessential slice of crafty modern era-minimal.

Review: Silkybeats - a brand new imprint with a specific vision in tricky-shuffly dance music - debut their first ever V/A release here, providing a smashing debut and a taster for increasingly sumptuous things to come. Selected by one Velvet Velour, the producer and curator here invites three of the smoothest operators around - B.Love, Bowyer and Astral Wayne - to help cook up a selection of abstract, minimal breakstep and microhouse.

Review: Your latest acid extraterrestrial jive comes in the form of this four-track EP V/A from Planet Orange. With tracks by Velvet Velour, Mitch Wellings, Tom Frankel, and Planet Orange boss Pete Melba, this second release retains all major aspects of the label's signature sound. Bursts of alien percussion pepper luminous beats, textured by light and shade as fleeting melodies wax and wane.

Review: Proper scratch-itching 12" business via Portuguese minimal outfit Cloudbeats. Velvet Velour (Liam Dodds) serves as visiting dance tutor, topping up a fortuitous four years so far under the moniker, and buoyed by such disc dissenters as Butter Side Up, Sonido Chido and Nuances De Nuit. 'Tempo' is a record-scratching, hi speed garage satisfier, the title track for which flaunts a rather brave early tempo slowdown to die for. As the record goes on we hear various love bugging, paralinguistic vocal sounds - hums, breaths, giggles, "uh-huh" and"yes" samples - as though to mirror what we were already thinking about the record. We hear extra convective sound bubbles blown on the B1 'What Is That?', locking down a bathtime garage sound universe that is entirely its own.

Review: Liam Dodds aka Velvet Velour has teamed up with French label and "chill podcast" offshoot Sonido Chido, run by Josh Tweek, for this new and rather erotically charged funk-Balearic number on dripping 12" wax. Adding to SC's humid, variegated floral palette in downbeat and prismatic funk, this sleek freakoff follows DMC's 'Softly Spoken' released earlier in the year, and hears Dodds launch into six casual downtempo blooms after finding encouragement and inspiration in Tweeks' words as a guest on the latter's aforementioned podcast. For sultry relief, chuck 'Talking To The Computer', 'Hip Trop' or 'Butterfly Groove' into your next USB-stick powered prance-a-thon and you'll be sure to precipitate a wave of chill, rippling facial-expressively from near to far ends of the dancefloor.

Review: Liam Dadds is Velvet Velour, one of house music's new school talents with top-notch outings on cool labels like The Brane, Butter Side Up, Mindhelmet and Small Hours. French legend D'Julz has now tapped him up for his Bass Culture label and the boy done good in return. As always these are fist-pumping and house cuts that power though deep space with a whole world of effects, sci-fi details and colourful synth lines paired with super fresh bass. We love it and so do dancefloors, such is the potency and catchiness of these sounds.

Review: The label at the helm of the Minimal ship, Mindhelmet, is back with another dazzling release. Never has an artist's name so well reflected their sound - Velvet Velour's production is exactly as you might expect: smooth, effortless, yet party ready. The first track, 'The Waltzer' has an undeniable zero-gravity quality, zooming through the cosmos, encountering meteoric fields and spacious, star-studded vistas. 'Khaosan Rodeo' rushes through aqueous landscapes, embellished with water-muffled vocals, and oxygenated bubbles, this is a buoyant track for flowy, dancefloor moments. 'Wave Wizard' offers a broken, breaksy view into the Velvet Velour sound world. An excellent example of restraint from the producer - this track holds the perfect balance between substantial percussion and airy atmospheres. A mind-melting release from a standout label in the minimal scene.

Review: Since making his vinyl debut on Scratch Discs last year with the UKG-inspired 'Arrivederci EP', Liam Dadds AKA Velvet Velour has dropped a string of singles that gleefully blur the boundaries between tech-house, deep house, breaks and UKG. He explores similarly ear-pleasing, toe-tapping territory on 'Hard To Explain', his Butter Side Up label debut. Dadds sets his stall out with the organ-rich, two-step-goes-tech-house niceness of 'Ready', before exploring the warmer, deeper and groovier side of London tech-house on the rolling, bass-heavy title track. 'Jetski' sees Dadds brilliantly add squelchy and colourful, electrofunk-influenced synth sounds, while closing cut 'Introduce This' is a gloriously deep and picturesque slab of two-step tech-house.

Review: Nuances De Nuit hits the mini-milestone of release number 10 here and does it in a standout fashion. Velvet Velour is behind the music and the opener 'Can You Feel It' is a superbly colourful house cut with futuristic neon lines and serene grooves. 'First Filter' keeps up the freshness with more vivid synth colours, balmy cosmic chords and silky drum programming and 'Cloud Beats' then gets more off-grid with its drums. This most delicious and vibrant EP closes with another cosmic surfer in 'A New Leaf.' Lovely stuff.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Record has light surface marks/scratches, otherwise in excellent working condition***


Nuances De Nuit hits the mini-milestone of release number 10 here and does it in a standout fashion. Velvet Velour is behind the music and the opener 'Can You Feel It' is a superbly colourful house cut with futuristic neon lines and serene grooves. 'First Filter' keeps up the freshness with more vivid synth colours, balmy cosmic chords and silky drum programming and 'Cloud Beats' then gets more off-grid with its drums. This most delicious and vibrant EP closes with another cosmic surfer in 'A New Leaf.' Lovely stuff.

Review: Breathy trance lines and light drum snaps adorn the upper edges of this funky new EP from Velvet Velour, which drops imminently on Scratch Disks. Being by its very nature a 4x4 and floor-functional EP, there is an advanced palette of sound that weaves through and between this one's beats. 'Wonderful World Of You' is a strong highlight: some kind of rattly, resonant laser-synth sloshes about the mix, caressing our ears acoustically until the flow state is truly locked. 'No 172', meanwhile, ticks off the box as one for the garage heads. Impressive.

Review: Small Hours from the Berlin-based Brit Youandewan is a young and already cult label that does things well, if not fast. Yet here we get a second EP in quick succession with the sixth outing again offering up four vital names from the house and tech underground. Velvet Velour opens up with squelchy, funky bass on 'Show You The Door' before Liquid Earth melts the mind with impossibly bendy synths and stiff drums on 'Gummo Hardrive.' Flip this 12" over and you'll find some cosmic tech in the form of The Honda Boys's 'Funghi Pie' and gurgling, gritty, metallic deep space house from Dreaming Mind who offers up 'Mid-Bozz.' Top tackle for sure.

Review: Six years after Youandewan christened the Brane label with a now impossible-to-find EP, the imprint finally returns to stores. This time round it's a split affair, with his tracks on the A-side and two by Velvet Velour on the flip. Youandewan first delivers 'Cheap Lust', a lovely combination of ultra-deep and dreamy pads, warped bass, locked-in house drums and tech-tinged noises, before opting for a sleazier and wilder flex on the breakbeat-driven, garage-influenced 'On A Hired Sofa'. Those garage-influences come to the fore on Velvet Velour's 'OK' - think shuffling, loose-limbed 4/4 drums, mutant UKG bass and sparse melodic motifs - while 'I Need Juice' is a bouncy slab of UKG/tech-house fusion.