Velour on Tap releases debut EP ‘Cruel Harbour’

After spending three decades moving between cities, bands and creative identities, Halifax-based songwriter I.D. Brimacombe has arrived at a new destination with Velour On Tap. The project may be his latest musical chapter but it carries the accumulated experience of a career informed by constant movement and reinvention. Drawing from years spent across Canada, the UK, Portugal and the United States, I.D. has developed a songwriting voice that’s intrinsically linked to a sense of place while remaining fascinated by the shifting nature of memory, identity and landscape.

His musical journey has crossed an astonishing range of scenes; in the late 90s, he was part of Montreal’s independent music sphere with Jack Rustle, sharing creative space alongside the era that surrounded artists such as The Dears and Bran Van 3000. From there, his path led to London, where he became a founding member of The Stir with Becky Jacobs of Tunng. The years that followed saw him release music as Ian Pryde during a prolific period divided between Chicago and London before joining the Anglo-Portuguese collective Mira Pardelha, a project that also featured Joel Cadbury of UNKLE and Esme MacDonald of The Paradise Motel.

All of those experiences now coalesce within Velour On Tap, which arrives as a project that feels like the work of an artist who’s spent decades collecting stories from different landscapes before finally finding the setting where those fragments naturally belong. That setting is Canada’s Atlantic coast, whose rugged beauty and environment become central characters throughout the debut EP titled Cruel Harbour.

Across four songs, I.D. creates what might best be described as a musical map, though not one designed to offer understanding or clear directions. Cruel Harbour charts a world where familiar places gradually become stranger the longer they’re observed, with roadside gas stations, quarry lakes, coastal roads, weathered barns and tired figures by the water arising throughout the record as symbols carrying emotional context.

This distinctive atmosphere is amplified by what I.D. has coined as a “Maritime Gothic” style, through which the EP explores the tension between inland cottage country and the rough edge of the North Atlantic, creating a psychogeography where landscapes seem to absorb memory and ordinary objects take on unexpected significance. Cruel Harbour balances that thematic ambiguity with elements of high-velocity psych, surf rock and melodic indie pop providing the framework, drawing inspiration from the melodic yet dissonant sounds associated with the early 90s Halifax and Moncton music scene.

Opened by “Hourglass Lake Ahead,” the EP stats with the twang of bright guitar tones before jumping into a bouncy groove of warm chords, pattering percussion, intricate guitar leads and tender vocal performance. Flowing with alluring female vocal passages, storytelling lyricism and catchy melodic flourishes, it’s a charming slice of pop-tinged indie rock music that’s memorable, energising and highly original all at once.

“Gas Station Map” glides with pulsing bass lines, shuffling drums and jangly guitar textures as upbeat vocals drift above to deliver a delightful jam that’s sure to win over fans with its delicate melodic writing and engaging rhythm. “Sand in the Hardest Shell” forms with the sway of strummed guitar as rustling drums ushers in airy vocal leads, crafting an infectious listening experience from start to finish. Closing the EP with “Eagles Have Angels,” the laid back blend of breezy guitar tones and mellow drums crafts an inviting backdrop as I.D. expressive voice floats above to deliver a buoyant musical moment that’s impossible not to love.

Recorded and mixed over the course of a week in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, the EP captures an energy that perfectly suits its subject matter. With Cruel Harbour, Velour On Tap makes a superb entrance as an exciting new chapter in I.D. Brimacombe’s enduring artistic story. Throughout the release, he channels decades of musical exploration into four stellar songs that transform Canada’s Atlantic coastline into something simultaneously real and dreamlike and we can’t wait to see what he’s got in store next.

Listen to Cruel Harbour below