The Velocity Raptors
The Velocity Raptors is the alternative indie instrumental trio of Sean Buckley (bass), Michael Tabner (guitar) and Stephen Hermitt (drums) based in Manchester in England.
The Velocity Raptors
The logo gives a sense of the good natured humour of the band, though I did hear a report a couple of days ago that a dinosaur has been looked at that has a fairly impressive turn of speed. The devilish irony of the duality of the term ‘raptor’, referencing in addition to dinosaurs – birds of prey -who do tend to move at startling speed, led me to decide I needed to take a listen and I am delighted I did.
Hitting the play-list unleashes a jack-in-the-box of sheer enjoyment. Tumbling bright colours and bouncing springs are ejected in to the room with peels of smiles. That isn’t to digress from the fact that inside the levity are a trio of musicians who can turn out a great tune. One may anticipate – instrumental – alternative – this was heading towards the experimental route. Far from it, this is a box of fun indie rock where the vocal isn’t missed a scrap and in fact if it did turn up the response would be – please shut-up.
The Velocity Raptors take the wisecrack to the extreme with their music which is played dazzlingly fast and it is this rapidity and brevity of the pieces which in all likelihood will see you with a beaming grin and a turn around the room with arms and legs flailing in absolute joy. To make this work, the trio have had to take ‘traditional’ chorus / verse constructs and turf them out of the window, they have come back with a style that holds all that is needed for linear progression to a format that works superbly sans vocal.
I hear lots of great music, but sometimes a big bold bright diamond emerges from the rock-face. Velocity Raptors is a shining diamond it would be wise not to miss.
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