VETO is one of the bands that we presented as the first ones on Good because Danish and we always had a soft spot for them. No surprise, that we got super excited about their new album “16 Colors”, released after a long period of a break. If you’re looking for an electronic music which is not obvious and can make you feel a bit disturbed at times – “16 Colors” is a record for you!
Some bands are like wine, the older – the better. VETO seems to be like a pizza dough – it gets the best when you let it be for a while. The band disappeared from the music scene for a few years and just when nobody really expected it, they’ve come back at the end of 2017 with new music and in March 2018 released the album “16 Colors”, which sounds as if they came back after a 1 year break and at the same time – is simply fresh as hell!
Ten tracks on the album combine into a well-balanced whole. The vibrant vocals of Troels Abrahamsen, which sound almost as if he couldn’t take the next note out of dispair, hit the bottom of your soul in every song. Sometimes with power, sometimes a bit more delicate, gentle. Along with them, the sounds mix into a tangled, complex canvas. I always thought VETO had the ability to create a sort of a cosy discomfort with their songs. The atmosphere which is kind of disturbing and maybe even repulsive, but at the same time – beautiful and… addictive. With the powerful opening of the new album – the title track “16 Colors” they brought back that atmosphere.
The rest of the album is as good and powerful as the opening track. VETO serves us a mixture of songs which sound like almost uncontrolled musical chaos interspersed with melodic compositions. More down-tempo tracks like “Mount Dome” or lullaby-like “Square Shaped” put in between songs with strong – either melodic or vocal – accents (like closing track “The Take/The Pace” or “Oh Center” – with these simple, yet haunting lyrics “You never let me enter”…) find the listener’s weak spots, identify the cracks on the surface of each of us and crush them to get inside us.
“16 Colors” really makes you listen to it. It is not really an album which can just play in the background. It demands the attention of the listener. When you give that attention to the music, you will be rewarded with songs which will get under your skin and deep into your system. Sometimes it might not feel super nice. It forces you to face certain thoughts and emotions which you might not really want to face… maybe ever. Perhaps that’s why it took us on Good because Danish so long to finally write about the new VETO album. Because they are a band which is not afraid to dig deep and scratch out the glitter from the surface to get to the real thing. They do it in a unique musical way, which is uncompromising and because of that – so hauntingly beautiful in its roughness.
This return to the Danish music scene is a great thing and we hope to hear more from VETO in the future. Gems like “16 Colors” album are needed in the music world.
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