There are few things I find more exciting than being blindsided by an album. If it’s a band I know nothing about, or someone’s first record, or some bizarre unexpected twist that I just didn’t see coming, that feeling of being kicked in the ass is just awesome, and that’s exactly what I was met with on my first listen to Velvet Elvis’ In Deep Time. Released in a limited-to-300 LP by Cae-Sur-A that includes a download with the bonus track “Brass Tacks,” lyric sheet and a piece of the actual analog tape onto which the album was recorded — I’m assuming there’s another copy of the masters somewhere else – In Deep Time is the first full-length from the Rochester, New York, five-piece, following 2011’s Favorite Horses EP and a cassette single for the 15-minute track, “No Rules in the Wasteland.” Musically, Velvet Elvis follow a sleek heavy rock course, bolstered by the strong rhythm section of bassist Luke Valchester (also vocals) and drummer Scott Donaldson, the wide-ranging singing of frontwoman Karrah Teague and the varied riffing of guitarists Brandon Henahan and Randall Coon (the latter also vocals), and thematically, the seven tracks toy with themes out of science fiction, including the Blade Runner-referencing opener “Nexus 666” and the open-air post-apocalypse of “Big Game Hunt.” The latter track is the longest on In Deep Time at 8:39 and boasts headphone-worthy heavy psychedelic rock and a soulful performance from Teague, but Velvet Elvis are never too far from the sense of the song, their craft far more cohesive here than the general anticipation of a band’s first album might be. Part of that is unquestionably due to the production – handled (apparently analog) by Sam Polizzi at GFI Studios in Ontario, NY – which is smooth and crisply professional without sacrificing the fuzzy warmth of Henahan and Coon’s guitars or losing hold of the interplay between the front and backing vocals, which makes for a dynamic beginning as soon as the first chorus of “Nexus 666” kicks in and the arrangement of the song becomes more complex.

Velvet Elvis aren’t writing hooks for hooks’ sake, but In Deep Time does have more than a fair share of strong choruses to its credit, the laid back riff and psychedelic lead guitar layering of “Nexus 666” barely scratching the surface of the album’s scope. Likewise, they are heavy when they want to be – six-minute closer “Toothless Moon” is as doomed as anything you could want to put next to it – but still accessible, the album finding rare balance between heavy soul and dynamic approachability. Subtly, Valchester’s bass becomes a striking element in Velvet Elvis’ favor, his weaving around the guitar riffs on “Nexus 666” and even more so on the fuzzy bounce of the following “BM Steed” – on which Teague takes a break during the first verse onto to reemerge backing the chorus while Coon and Valchester handle the second verse, Teague solo for the bridge, then all for the chorus, etc. – and with so much vocal interplay and a build there that’s almost separate from the instruments behind it, it would be easy to lose track of the guitar, bass and drums, but as Teague belts out the lines, “And you can have my heart because it no longer flutters/I don’t need it my love lives on in shames darkening feathers,” the bass is with her every step of the way, gorgeously adding depth to the music so that it’s not about one dominating the other, music vs. vocals, but the two coming together in one adrenaline-rushing swirl. That’s still not the apex of the track, which is heavier and still to come, though it could’ve been for the momentum constructed leading into “Big Game Hunt,” which caps side A with In Deep Time’s most open and psychedelic feel – the guitars at their spaciest and the vocals topping in distant Jefferson Airplane echoes a progression that’s still fuzzed, still friendly and still heavy all at once, Donaldson doing well in keeping the song grounded without over- or under-playing the beat. The guitars of Henahan and Coon seem to circle overhead of the same ideas without ever running into each other tonally, and there are acoustics layered into “Big Game Hunt” before the break around 4:50 and the psych build that ensues from there that just act as one more element furthering the listening experience amid marching extra percussion and the ending question from Teague, “Is your heart too a galaxy like mine?”

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