Is there still a beat in all machines?

VETO.

When Carpark North broke the wall in 2001 amidst wailing, melancholic orchestras like Kashmir, Mew and Saybia, little did we know they prepared the ground for almost a decades worth of Danish electronic rock - one of the most significant waves in Danish music of the '00s. A wave spearheaded by VETO and Spleen United in the middle of the decade, and followed up by the likes of Dúné and Turboweekend amongst others.


A lot of water has run under the bridge since then, and the indie-electro-rock scene is rapidly deteriorating. Bands are leaving towards the darker reaches of club music, bands such as Turboweekend and (we must presume) Spleen United, while the remaining crossroads between contemporary indie and electronica has been taken over by a surge of, mostly, strong-voiced, melancholic women such as Oh Land and RebekkaMaria. In that perspective, the mid-decade wave of potent electro rock was perhaps a sign of the times - the economy was good, people had jobs and could afford to be partying with no worries.


VETO, as I mentioned, was one of the figureheads of the movement, emerging with the obvious statement of There's A Beat In All Machines, their debut album, in 2006, which I regard as one of the clear-cut best Danish albums of the decade. 2008's fist-in-the-face potent Crushing Digits saw them mark their territory even more clearly and took them on a tour de force through the country, but since then, we've been overloaded with front figure Troels Abrahamsen's neat, but slightly cold and boring solo work. Abrahamsen is a divine singer and a talented musician, but without his band mates, he lacks the distinctive spark, that made VETO's two first albums so special and so relevant.


So, is there still beat in all machines? I don't know. It remains to be seen, with VETO's third LP, Everything Is Amplified, out today. I've heard it once, so the jury is still very much out. But there is definitely a change of pace, which has been sort of expected. I mean, Crushing Digits was very good, but not a formula on which you can build much more. VETO have been forced to move in some direction, and I guess we all expected, feared, perhaps, that this would be in the direction of Abrahamsen's solo projects. We were right, and some of the later tunes, which seem to have more of a kinship with Crushing Digits, stick out awkwardly. As I said above, I don't want to rule out anything yet, but after the first listen, I'm left with an impression of Abrahamsen's often uninteresting melodies over sporadic bursts of the other band members adding their spice - a bit of aggressive drumming and a bit of wailing synth here and there.


I'll be back on this one in a few days, but for now, I'm not impressed.