Steel & Velvet build their world from very simple tools: one deep voice, two guitars, and a lot of air around them. Formed by singer Johann Le Roux and guitarist Romuald Ballet-Baz and later joined by Jean-Alain Larreur, they treat American folk and rock standards like campfire stories told in a stone chapel. Everything is close and dry, closer to Johnny Cash’s late acoustic records than your regular Americana playlists.
On People Just Float, they frame a loose western tale through a set of covers. Their version of Robbie Basho’s “Orphan’s Lament” is the centrepiece: the piano of the original becomes a careful guitar pattern, and Le Roux’s baritone leans into each line until the song feels almost hymn-like. “Ring of Fire” keeps the pulse but strips out the swagger, turning it into something more resigned.
“Man in the Long Black Coat” plays up the fog in Dylan’s writing, the guitars leaving plenty of empty space so the story can hang in the room. “Silver” brings in a second voice, a soft answer to Johann that turns the song into a small dialogue, the kind you imagine happening on a porch after dark. “Lake of Fire” and “In Heaven” step into grunge and Lynch territor: just picked strings and a voice that treats these songs like folk standards, not museum pieces.
The EP works because Steel & Velvet commit fully to the bare setup, trusting tone, timing, and phrasing to carry songs everyone already knows. It is the kind of set that could slide straight into a quiet scene in a western, indie drama, or true-crime series: slow camera, empty road, voices still echoing after the cut.
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