Throughout 2022, Melbourne indie rock outfit the Velvet Club released a string of tracks that should have made up their second EP. Starting with “Love Me The Same” and peaking with “Thinking Straight”, these four songs featured jangly guitars, dreamy and intensely-layered vocals, and intuitive, singalong choruses made for festival stages, less than a few degrees of separation from Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever and Spacey Jane.

But for reasons unknown, that EP never came out. Instead, following a couple of standalone singles to tinker with their sound, the band released “The Otherside”. With the cover artwork a solid red square (not to be confused with Genesis Owusu’s Struggler)—a dramatic step away from the colourful collages of songs’ past—it is a pulsating, roaring track with barbed bass guitar, anxious vocals and one of the most satisfying tension builds I’ve ever heard. Its fuzzy, expansive sound was a complete departure from the clean indie pop showcased on their preceding single, “Til the Morning Sun”. The Velvet Club had moved on, working on something way bigger.

The next track they released, “Sleeping In”, built on this new formula, and is their best song. It’s dramatic, though more upbeat. The singer sounds on edge the entire time—his vocals rush through each verse, almost off the click—to match his confused mental state (“I feel like the world is falling in on me again/ Am I losing my head?”) That is the sound all through Space Between, bar “One Day”, one of their more reflective songs and a rare instance where they peel back these layers. “Gets Me Down” is similar, and a lyrical stand-out: “The writing on the wall gets harder to see with my head underwater” is a beautiful one-liner about the author’s anxious thoughts not allowing him the space to sort out his biggest issues.

There are so many Australian all-male indie rock bands out there, and it can be difficult to differentiate their sounds and stand out. I’m glad the Velvet Club have carved out a recognisable aesthetic and I’m keen to see where they go from here.