Description
The Rainwater E.P., a seven-track cassette-only EP, is the debut effort by the American indie rock band Velour (late renamed Velour 100), self-released in 1995. The album was recorded by Warren Defever. Featuring vocals by Amon Krist with music by Trey Many and “guidance guitar” by Josh Burbridge.
The demo cassette was released in 1995 before the band signed to Tooth & Nail Records. Shortly after the signing the band re-released the cassette independently on Distant Sounds Records (DSRC 001), though this time as Velour 100 and featuring different cover artwork (including a note saying: “also available in March 1996: “fall sounds” on tooth and nail records“). In 1997, Tooth & Nail Records released a CD-EP entitled Songs from the Rainwater E.P. featuring five out of the seven songs from the band’s original demo cassette. Two of the songs were re-recorded with new band members Jeremy Dybash and Matt Hudson, one song was remixed and a new instrumental track was added. Two songs on the CD-EP are original versions, and two songs from the original cassette were left off since they appear elsewhere (on the band’s full-length debut album Fall Sounds released in 1996 and on Tooth & Nail’s multi-artist compilation Artcore Volume Two from the same year).
This is a pretty well-known demo, as Velour 100 went on the sign to Tooth & Nail Records and release several CDs with them. This demo was also either remixed or recorded and partially released through Tooth & Nail as Songs from the Rainwater EP in 1997. You can see why they got signed – this is top level 90s alternative rock. The first song starts off as a lush acoustic number that seems to be heading into Sixpence None the Richer territory, but then the crunch of «Ritual Day» kicks in and you know this band is doing their own thing. The songs either tend to fade into each other, or have ambient noise connecting them together. No real silence on the tape, but it does seamlessly transition from quieter moments to louder moments to add plenty of diversity to the music. «Parting» and «Your Sky» are left off the re-release of this EP, and «Deep Water» and «Entropy» are re-recorded. «Ritual Day» is remixed as well. «Your Sky» seems to have been the only track here that made it on to their major label debut Fall Sounds in 1996. This demo is a re-released version of their earlier demo after they got signed. The band was originally just called Velour, and there are versions of this demo from earlier that have that name instead (and a different cover). [Christian Tape Underground, April 21, 2018]
Cassette tracklist:
Side One
A1. “10th Month”
A2. “Ritual Day”
A3. “Deep Water”
Side Two
B1. “Parting”
B2. “Ambivalence”
B3. “Entropy”
B4. “Your Sky”
Note: Limited run of 200 cassette tapes, each numbered.
cassette re-issue inlay
Songs from The Rainwater E.P., 1997
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