I have pretty much zero regrets about leaving Spotify for Apple Music a few years ago, but will admit that one of the things Spotify did better was their radio playlist after my selected album finished. I could usually happily listen to their suggestions open-endedly, whereas Apple’s algorithm is far less creative, pretty much always just suggesting Beach House’s “Space Song” after everything in my library. I am not even exaggerating.

But one time it did hit the bullseye was following a Hammer Head Shark listening session, when it served up a song by someone/thing called Whale Veil. Never heard of them, but the vocals on the track were very familiar… I’ll put cold hard Yen down that it’s Hiyu Nagai of Hammer Head Shark (so, again, not very creative on Apple’s part but accurate). There’s almost no information about the recordings, never mind credits, so I can’t 100% verify but based on the fact that Whale Veil is the recording pseudonym of one Rintaro Matsumoto and one of the featured works on his resume is mixing Hammer Head Shark’s records… yeah, I’d say he called in a favour.

The entirety of Whale Veil’s recorded output is two EPs – Bloop, released in April 2023, and Solstice in August of that year – but considering that Bloop makes up half of Solstice, it’s easier to just say there’s one record, four songs with great melodies, textures, and of course Nagai’s emotive vocals taking a more pop tilt that on the HHS material. Will we ever hear anything more from Whale Veil? Who knows, but at least unlike other mysterious one-and-done-? projects, Matsumoto remains active on Twitter so if something happens, we’d hear about it? Maybe?