The Utica Flower Company is not a florist. Its more a transatlantic, transcendental shipping company, hauling sunshine by the cubic ton from shore to shore. As a dare, I recommend reading their myspace page ( www.myspace.com/theuticaflowercompany), as the description is quite possibly the most accurate translation of how a record sounds textually. The company was established only a year or so ago as a result of writers block. The product stems from four different sources exchanging sound files and absolutely having their way with them. Four gardeners, fourteen tracks, do the math. This proto-60′s psychedelia hook-fest is relentless in the pursuit of color, scent, and arrangement. Its a modern exercise in lifting Velvet Underground weights with pop rock/hip hop loop form and pose. Vocally layered deep and instrumentally thick, it sweeps through the aisles of flora, bumping and rubbing and thinking dirty thoughts the whole time. ‘Sha-la-lee’s’ are dropped with near-reckless abandon, and heavily effected rounds hang like vines in the ether. Big, straightforward rock tunes like “Only Robots Don’t Like Music” and “She Comes Around” punctuate the record, anchoring its heady themes found in “The World’s Smallest Invention”. Explorations in heroin rock “Dead Flower” map the shady corners of ‘White Light/White Heat’. Simple stem axioms sprout leaves and petals on “Crash & Vanish”, blooming into Oasis-huge soundscapes. Groove factory “Desolate Location” ropes out to ground and root this collection of skyward-bound plumes. “Look At You Run” is possibly the clearest example of the Mama’s and the Papa’s sunny California influence. The capstone “Jars of Sunshine” ends the record on a fat rock note. An end to the tour of the factory floor. The perpetual vastness is the strength and weakness. While the melodies are sprawling and complex, any strong lyrical movements are buried within dense layers of instrumentation and back line voices. There are no anthems. Its gorgeous but inedible. As an ambient album, that’s what should happen, but its hard not to wish for handles to grasp. No pints will be drank to these songs, but these songs will play while pints are drank. As summer approaches, the Utica Flower Company opens wide the doors of nature’s emporium with this self titled debut. They’ve crafted an essential sunny day album, opening the windows wide and letting the fresh breezes in. Clear a space on the table, this one’s a centerpiece.Review by BarneyYou can download THE UTICA FLOWER COMPANY for FREE at http://www.cozyhomerecords.com
fuck wow blown out through which I note knowing full the amazing record hearing the sounds songs this describe i will add this is def one of if not the singular most high from cozy collective home in histroy. would like to have vinyl copy. serious space blowing walls-come-tumbling-down flowers growing inside of flowers inside of beast inside of giant flowers inside of forgotten moon of statue indwelling holy spirit statue on a hill in the hollow home kind of thing.
yes i kind of like it in a strange nostalgic piss-poorly recorded melodic fuckfest myself
I love this album, though I wish I could have mixed it before all the files were lost…
yes in hidsight I wish that too – but we live and learn – the moral of his story is perhaps don’t let thinkers do a do-ers job
HWL single for DG5 as well while we’re here ;)
i meant “hindsight” fuck this stupid computer