Velvet Vision’s Springtime Debut
After picking up a synthesizer in 2020, Betty Taylor debuts her first solo project as Velvet Vision. S/T self released on 3/25.
There are some mornings, despite the cold, that you wake up before your alarm. You notice the sun streaking through the blinds, and you feel strangely ok. You sit around in your room, not sure what to do with this circadian sudden free time. So you put on some music. On this particular kind of day I receive an email from Betty Taylor AKA Velvet Vision about her forthcoming self titled debut. On this particular day I do not put the email off, even though winter makes literally every task feel impossible, and I listen to the EP. Velvet Vision is effervescent, effortless, gliding around my apartment. I think Taylor, raised in Minnesota now living in New Mexico, understands the need to find the sunlight adorned moments in life and how to hold them close. Taylor reminds us that we have gotten through the loveless months every year up until now and we will again. She understands nature and people alike can always thaw and resolve into something sweeter, “I was such a different person last time” she sings on the opening track.
The forthcoming single, ‘Springtime Buzz’, is fizzy and hypnotic, recounting a vivid spring fling. Taylor knows the dizzy feeling of sudden romance and that, looking back, maybe it wasn’t as perfect as you anticipated it being. “I was on the passenger side but how could I forget I love to drive?” Maybe she’s accepting the way a new lover can catch our habits off guard, maybe she’s regretting how much she gave way to her fresh love. But ultimately he’s just “another boy who made me cry”. It doesn’t stop her from longing over the look in his eyes. ‘about flowers’ crashes to life; Taylor hopscotches over speaking samples, singing about how time and memory don’t always fully do the stories of our lives justice. Velvet Vision isn’t complex lyrically, not because Taylor isn’t more than competent, but because she uses synth so effectively.
Photo by Paris Mancini
Velvet Vision is an EP you can feel on your tongue, in your hair. Taylor’s music is the moment leading up to the acid trip when you’re just noticing how goddamn bright the leaves in the park are. It’s a long drive with the windows down, letting the warm air breeze through the car. Taylor captures potent moments and shapes her tones around them. ‘epilogue’ is stitched with field samples over a simple piano, maybe the sounds of kids playing. Eventually the track gives way to something that sounds more like the violin Taylor herself picked up in grade school before trading it in for a synth. This feels calm, like a brief reconciliation with childhood, with family.
There is always room for growth on Velvet Vision; the earliest any of the songs on the EP were created was in 2019, and Taylor didn’t buy a synthesizer ‘til 2020. She cites YouTube lessons and attributes her learning to other musician friends. Taylor calls Velvet Vision a “grounding practice” and, in part, I agree. She crafts a sound that brings you outside of your head, thinking instead of the grass growing underneath the snow right now and the blood running through our fingertips at this very moment. On the other hand she captures anticipation, the moment before we are caught up in a warbled love. Vaporous and lush, Velvet Vision is both waiting to be swept up and the moment of reflection after you’ve come back down to Earth.
The official music video for “Springtime Buzz’, created by Minneapolis artist and animator Helen Teague
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