The forthcoming Front Teeth 12" LP by Veil Of Light is a significant shift to the dancefloor for the Avant! artist, but his vision is as bleak as ever.

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It’s been 4 years now since the Swiss musician known only as “M” threw us into the glacial torrent that was the eponymous Veil Of Light (whose banging Secretthirteen mix can be heard here) BELÄTEN EP. A good number of EPs and 2 stellar LPs later (1 of these on aufnahme + wiedergabe) his outlook on the world is just as bleak if not moreso - Veil of Light’s latest LP, Front Teeth, will be released by Avant! on May 4 and prove that fact beyond a reasonable doubt. This release reveals a substantial shift in the project’s aesthetics. Whereas the music from Veil of Light up until now, including the 2016 Ursprung LP, has been described as a merge of coldwave, EBM and shoegaze, his forthcoming record drops the rock music aspect entirely in favor of pure synth music. The shift is obvious from the moment you glance at the cover art - for the first time Veil of Light has used colors other than black and white, and the switch-up in that regard seems a lot more drastic than even the musical changes. Pure red and purple are screaming from an image as high definition as a lit advertisement at night. Everything is graphically pristine and almost unbearably loud - much like the music.

Echoing the visual side, the most intense change to Veil of Light’s music is likely the production quality. One of the (slightly cheesy) gimmicks of M’s process in the past has been that story of him recording music in a bunker near Zurich, and I must say, the sound had fit that mental image rather well. It was grainy, had almost early 90’s black metal levels of lo-fi, the beats hid behind the ghostly gothic guitarwork. In comparison, Front Teeth sounds completely crystal clear, each element is distinguishable from the rest, and the beats are brought upfront, putting the focus on the dancefloor quality of the music. None of this takes anything away from how depressive and gloomy the tracks feel - on the contrary, the bright lights seem to illuminate the very reason coldwave has that particular name. The distance created by the machinegun rhythms and chilling EBM pulsations is a powerful emotional tool, especially combined with the contrast provided by melodic flowing synth passages and dispiriting lyrics. There is quite a number of tracks on here that would work as dancefloor bangers just as well as they would at home. Some of the highlights are the atmospheric “Soul In Ethanol” (the cool video for which you can view here), “Cut Fingers” with its brilliant playful bassline, and of course the darkest and most ritualistic of them all - “Soft Palate” and “Bridges Of God”, the latter which you can stream exclusively on our page.

Veil Of Light’s Front Teeth may not be a groundbreaking record, but it has a lot to be admired - the clear and surprising artistic vision, the chilling cold of its tracks, and the murderous beats.

Veil Of Light - Front Teeth 12" LP

A1 Your Love
A2 Soul In Ethanol
A3 Cut Fingers
A4 Sturm Und Drang
A5 Cut Out Your Name

B1 Soft Palate
B2 Bridges Of God
B3 Body To The Ceiling
B4 Under A Sun That Never Sets
B5 Fight Fire With Fire

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