Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Albums of the Year # 46 Floatie - Voyage Out

 



Do you want something a little bit floatie? Fret not, I think I've got just what you require. Voyage Out the debut album from Chicago's, you guessed it, Floatie, ticks all imaginable gravity loss boxes you may have that need ticking, as we prepare ourselves to bid farewell to March and open our arms to embrace April.



This is truly a terrific record. Kinetic, loose limbed, elastic and unfailingly positive. Taking many of the ingredients that the Post Rock Maths  set, (Slint, Tortoise, Breeders, Labradford, that lot), first stirrred into the Rock and Roll pot almost thirty years back and making them dance again almost beyond the grave before your very eyes. Magic!



Those who immersed themselves in the work of the early progenitors of this sound, might not find Voyage Out as delightfuly fresh as I'm doing right now. I never really went big time or that stuff first time round. I always found that scene slightly forbidding and earnest. Scientists in a lab in national health prescribed spectacles mixing up chemicals with heaven knows what intent. Being serious. Not having a girlfriend. Maths equations. Steve Albini. 



Floatie make everything that seemed bleak and monochrome about all that suddenly burst into glorious technicolor. Like some magical day in 1966 when the world was suddenly no longer black and white. And never would be. Ever again.


I'm still on my first play of this wonderful record and already I want to listen to it again and get to know it better. To properly familiarise myself with its twists and turns. Those with different record collections to the one I have might disagree. Those who have mined this particular Rock shaft to the point of exhaustion particularly. 




Frankly, I'd say they're tired old cynics. I feel sorry for them. Get with the beat Baggy. As Baloo said to Bagheera. Let's get Floatie! Just what the doctor ordered.Your prescription for April and Spring.





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