The Beat Surrender

Velofax are a four-piece post punk band from Jersey, they got together in 2004, so have a bit of experience behind them. Influences are Talking Heads, Kraftwork, The Who, Stereolab and ESG. The band were named after a make of moped (allegedly stolen but strangely reappeared).

Interesting to know that the band describe their style of music as post punk rock or a crossover sound with angular guitar, driving beat and funk fuelled bass lines. Perhaps they think if they make it sound complicated it will fool us into thinking it’s a lot cleverer than it is. However, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so on to the music.

The sampler has three tracks, opening track is also the single release and the title track from the album. Lets Talk It Over has a driving beat all right and a strong bass line but aside from that the punk influence is minimal. Dust It Down is for me a stronger track, great fast beat, strong bass and the vocals really pull the track together, good rock and roll sound. Last track is Cent Mille, this is sung in French, which bearing in mind I didn’t get much further than hello, goodbye and my name is… I’m not sure what the lyrics were about. This track had a slight electro feel to the vocals and background noise.

The album might not be for me, however as a sampler it shows they have some promise and the range of tracks was quite interesting.