This clear little circle of joy marked the return of Floor after a seven-year hiatus, just before their “debut” album on No Idea dropped. I put debut in inverted commas there, because strictly speaking, their debut album (a record entitled “Dove”) should have been out on Bovine Records during the mid-nineties. That record is only now getting a release, again via No Idea. Just to complicate matters, Floor’s current drummer, Henry Wilson, sings and plays guitar in Dove, who are on the flipside of this 7″. Further to this, Dove also have their own album out, which may well be self-titled. Confused? Yes. But never mind eh dumbass?
Floor’s album on No Idea won them a legion of new fans, who were suckered in by the unique combination of a comedically heavy bass-sound overlaid with sweetly-sung chanting vocals. Conversely, the die-hards, who were looking for more shouting and droning a la the early 7″‘s and splits (all of which are also set to be compiled for a discography soon), found themselves alienated by the stylistic switcheroo. The former will be delighted to find that “Bombs To Abbadon” could easily find itself at home on the album, with it’s totally enveloping elephant-fart guitar tone counterpointed by those trademark wobbly vocals, and the latter might be placated by there being a bit of yelling and some faster, meaner bits than what you usually get in (newer) Floor songs. So far, so Floor, so good!
Dove are the real revelation here though. “One Year Later” combines High On Fire’s majestic amp-straddling heaviness (without bowing too obviously at the altar of Black Sabbath) with an almost scattershot math-rock approach. They immediately come crashing in, bash out an awesome riff, and then decide to play a different, even cooler riff, and then switch to an even cooler riff than that… and so it goes on. The ending is almost Floor-like – slow, chiming, heavy chords and chanting vocals. Absolute genius.