Vinyl Floor are back!!!

DISCOGS: https://www.discogs.com/artist/2312460-Vinyl-Floor

Nature, much like music, is a force that is difficult to describe in any language, but its power is undisputable. From the wind that pushes dying leaves away from the trees to the shaking of the ground during a tremendous earthquake; nature has a way of letting its presence be known regardless of any circumstances. Occasionally, a band comes around and makes a record that like a great action of nature leaves a lasting mark on the generation for which it was made, and recently I had the pleasure of hearing such a record in the form of Vinyl Floor’s Apogee, their fourth studio effort to date. Apogee translates the white hot heat of atmospheric pop/rock into a sleek, compact vehicle meant to be flexible but unforgiving, and anyone who questioned Vinyl Floor’s vitality prior to this release will be effectively shut down as soon as they press play on the opening track “Ivory Tower.” Albums like this only come around so often, and to deny its credibility would be nothing short of criminal.

None of the ten songs on Apogee would fit together if they were split up into multiple EPs, which I have a feeling was an idea likely suggested to Vinyl Floor during the engineering stage of recording. Very few bands would be comfortable making a record that is so willfully translucent, so unafraid of the cursory roughness that would bar it from acceptance in the established order or pop music, but this crew undertook this project as though they were fixing breakfast for the kids before school. Everything sounds natural, nothing is forced at the audience for even a millisecond. I was particularly taken by the fact that in “Blood Looks Good on You,” there’s an obvious moment where the band could capitalize on a predictable chord descent but they refute any temptation to follow its alluring scent by dispatching a furious tizzy of guitar virtuosity in its place. It wasn’t something I was expecting to hear, but let’s face it; good albums don’t exactly come with a blueprint before you listen to them.

Apogee streams along with an orchestral swing, but unlike Vinyl Floor’s last two records it doesn’t feature any of the same ceremonious instrumental accents or operatic vocals that kept the band from getting major airplay on college and specialty radio in the United States. The bottom line is that no matter what kind of sound they’re churning out, Vinyl Floor is the thinking person’s rock n’ roll band, and candy pop fans won’t likely be interested in the complexities of their content nor the throttling matter in which they’re delivered. But I don’t think the band really cares about winning over that crowd – I certainly wouldn’t. Not when they’ve got so much sonic dominance to boast in a chapter of rock’s history where most bands shy away from pushing the volume above seven (let alone eleven). Vinyl Floor is the premier rock band on the planet right now, and anyone who wants to debate that should make a point of listening to Apogee before they even start.

RELATED ARTICLE: http://www.muzicnotez.com/magazine/2014/09/denmark-alternative-rock-band-vinyl-floors-new-album-vaudeville/

Michael Rand