Reviews What the Buzzing (Released 9/04 by Bomp/The Committee to Keep Music Evil) Daredevil Magazine Terrascope Online Skyscraper StonerRock.com Zeitgeist / SpaceRock.co.uk Paniscus Revue No Front Teeth Webzine Lowcut Webzine (#21) Raw Power Radio Left Off The Dial High Bias Amazon.com KZSU Zookeeper Online All Music Guide Sleazegrinder Culture Bunker Cleveland Free Times Earcandy Razorcake Noize Italia Coloursonic Psyche Van Het Folk What the Buzzing (Released 7/02 by Drigh Records) Scene Magazine Sonic Curiosity Aural Innovations #21 Free City Media Dream Magazine (#3) Indieville.com The Broken Face (#14) Psychedelic-Music.Net Dead Ernest Roelf on Floorian DemoUniverse Other Comments Articles/Interviews Aural Innovations Daredevil Magazine Okay, so this album came out a while ago, but I'm reviewing it anyway because it fucking rules. Anyone who's down with super psychedelic rock needs to pay attention right now, because this album is officially mandatory. As in "put away your copy of Tab...25 this album is your new bong session soundtrack" mandatory. This isn't quite as layered as Monster Magnet's "Tab," so instead of getting lost in a copious amount of layers of droning sound, you've got only a few things going on at a time for most of the album, but they still manage to keep you hypnotized from start to finish. You can hear a strong 70's rock vibe in there among the interstellar sound waves, the earlier stuff on the album especially reminds me of Floyd's more ass kicking material. The band uses a variety of instruments to get their sound down, from ambient samples to sitars. You'd expect the guitars to have a heavy amount of effects and processors, but usually it's just delays, fuzz and loops. The band may use other effects to tweak the sound, but it doesn't get really thick, things always sound natural and light for the most part. All the vocals are clean, and sung fairly softly, which supports the dream-like atmosphere. The album flows by seemlessly, without an overly abrasive moment. Don't get me wrong, this is definitely a rock band, but a softer, gentler rock band. This album's pretty much dominated my CD player for the last two weeks. You've entered a new fronteir of space-rock, and Floorian is your guide. – RS Terrascope Online It both sobers and concentrates the mind to consider that Ohio space-rockers Floorian would have been one of Bomp founder Greg Shaw's last signings before he made an indecently early exit from this earth. The man who put out the earliest releases by the Brian Jonestown Massacre and Warlocks clearly saw the band as spiritual kin to these post-shoegazer psychedelic din-makers, and his opinion is not one to be discounted easily. 'What the Buzzing' was originally issued on the band's own Drigh Records in 2002. It's been remixed and supplemented with new material for the Bomp release, and now clocks in at an ambitious 70 minutes. What Shaw saw in the band's early work has largely been realised here. A veil has been lifted, and Floorian's recordings now sparkle at that perfect intersection of melody and noise sought by many and found by only a few. The exquisitely heavy-lidded 'Or So They Say' is the perfect opener, hang-gliding into the middle of a Moroccan market on currents of middle-eastern guitar bliss and along a central melodic thread nailed by John Godshalk's newly clarified vocals. Though clearly influenced by Swervedriver and the Catherine Wheel, the arabesque guitar work of Fisher and Park on this track disengages Floorian's work from it's influences. On other tracks, the band builds eastern-influenced space rock atmospheres that recall everyone from Pink Floyd circa 'Saucerful of Secrets' to Spaceman 3 and even Clark-Hutchinson on their epochal 'A-MH2'. Occasionally they skirt the abyss: the disembodied vocals, backwards guitar and e-bow drones of 'Overruled' descend into nothingness and return to being like a narcotics overdose being fought with a timely shot of Narcan. They back it up with 'Waiting For It' - a slab of space pop situated somewhere between Yo La Tengo and the Jesus and Mary Chain. 'Auravine', an experiment with abstract guitar drones and tape loops, cleverly leads into 'Symptoms Alone'; perhaps this release's central piece, and tonally a 10-minute companion piece to 'Or So They Say'. 'Symptoms Alone' is a timeless flood of brain chemistry overload, staking a claim for a place on for this track on any compilation of early 21st Century neo-psychedelia. And 20 minutes of the release still remain, with 'Heavium', 'Alt. 11' and 'Somic' taking the listener down a magic carpet glide slope to safe landing. If this new version of 'What the Buzzing' raises any concerns, they are to do with the role of guitarist Phillip Park, who contributes lead guitar to many of the stand-out tracks ('Or So They Say', 'Symptoms Alone', Heavium', 'Alt. 11' for example). Park is now no longer with the band, and replacing his key role in their early sound may prove to be Floorian's biggest challenge for the future, both in the studio and presumably live. Regardless of any weight of expectation raised by Greg Shaw's endorsement of Floorian, the band have crafted a work with substantial mass and momentum – one that is highly satisfy for both new listeners, and those who have followed the band from early demos and the first incarnation of this release until now. – Tony Dale Skyscraper This Columbus, Ohio space rock outfit was one of the last Bomp! signings by the legendary Greg Shaw (R.I.P.). While Shaw was mostly known for championing garage and punk rock, he was also a huge proponent of hard-edged psychedelic music, having released records by the likes of Spacemen 3, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, and The Warlocks. Floorian should appeal immensely to fans of the aforementioned. Their debut is a staggering effort, channeling a dark, atmospheric vibe similar to the likes of early Pink Floyd, Mogwai, and the first two Catherine Wheel records, as well as the best work by United Kingdom cult favorites such as the Comsat Angels, Sundial, and Loop. On songs like "Or So They Say," "Heavium," and the 10-minute juggernaut "Symptoms Alone," the instrumental interplay between bass player John Godshalk and the dueling guitars of Todd Fisher and Phillip Park is mesmerizing, slow-burning psychedelic buildups complete with Near Eastern undercurrents, cascading into a trance-inducing avalanche. Phil Spector may have coined the phrase "Wall of Sound," but trust me, on What the Buzzing, Floorian has built a fortress! – Ben Vendetta StonerRock.com Soundscapes of psychedelic, cinematic flicker and buzz ebb and flow for minutes on end, perhaps improvised on the spot under the influence of some mind-altering party favors. It’s the patient anticipation, plus the organic, early-Floyd in the basement vibe, that makes Floorian’s trip such a lazy delight to take. Their rock roots and occasional need to let them show keep What the Buzzing from dissolving into an endless recursive navel-stare, but there’s plenty of time for such abdominal contemplation throughout. It’s definitely a good triptych, whether your trip involves an actual road or a journey inward. Shoegazers, 4AD fans, psych heads and the late night incense-and-acid set would do well to crawl inside this album and curl up for a bit. – InfernalKeith Zeitgeist / SpaceRock.co.uk This is kind of a re-release, with the original “What The Buzzing” having come out in 2002, but here is a revamped version with 4 new tracks added to this release, which is over 28-minutes of new Floorian music, but shorn of 2 tracks from the original. The band say they are "exploring the realms of psychedelia, space rock and experimentalism… its own unique style of darkly melodic, hypnotic drone rock.” Which is pretty well right on the mark. Although they do know when to turn it up to 11, they just use it sparingly. They veer between more atmospheric pieces like "Auravine" and the stoner folk drone cross of album highlight, "Symptoms Alone", a song so good, it is worth the price of admission all by itself. The album is replete with moments of magic, especially when they go all Spiritualized meets The Verve (that is to say the original The Verve). Away from that highlight I would gently point you towards the 8-minutes-plus instrumental “Aether Spill”, a tune so pure space rock it hurts, or the Barrett era Pink Floydianism of “Alt. 11”. This is a record you will want to return to, time and time again, so get it now. – Stuart Paniscus Revue Slow heavy drones that roll on over and above the misty nether regions of your skull. Some of these trance rock tracks are a little more embracing than others, as the opener “Or So They Say” is considerably more lively than the drift of “Aether Spill,” “Overruled” calls in some seductively distant female vocals, “Waiting For It” brings a Middle Eastern approach to a Pink Floyd-inspired instrumental, the coffin-tapping “Auravine” has a slightly sinister undertow, and the sound vibrations continue through the likes of “Heavium,” “Alt.11,” and the closer “Somic.” Fans of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, Low Flying Owls and the like will dig it the most – given a little something to settle them down. – Tom Crites No Front Teeth Webzine Floorian drop you deep into a peculiar and atmospheric landscape. An environment carved by sound and shifting ambiance. You really don't know what direction you are going to follow. The sounds wash over you and you go where they go. Soaked and absentminded, the experience is full-on. Many of the tracks are close to the 10-minute mark and lead you through conflicting atmospheres and reactions as in 'Auravine' that is extremely uncomfortable and relaxing simultaneously. An obvious comparison would be Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd where the songs mapped out a journey and by the end of the track you ended up in a different place to where you started out. You are almost fatigued by the journey. Although the Floyd comparison exists, Floorian takes you much, much further and deeper into their psychedelic and mysterious world. This recorded voyage takes over an hour and you will be utterly saturated and absorbed. Floorian is an event. A fantastic experience like no other I can compare it to. Just follow them. Lowcut Webzine (#21) A very diverse release here. When Floorian from Columbus are best they have a sound resembling a mix of Days Of Wine And Roses-era Dream Syndicate and a less commercial Dandy Warhols on a bad psychedelic space rock trip. Songs like Or So They Say and Symptoms Alone are really cool and although they are very long they keep your attention. When Floorian sucks they excel in unbelieveable long and boring droning that doesn't seem to go anywhere….at all! I want songs and not spaced out soundscapes, damn it. If Floorian put on their rocking boots this could get really interesting – Don K Raw Power Radio Bomp continues on in their excellent track record of releases. This is a really spaced out, ambient, psychedelic album, sort of like a combination of Spacemen 3, Mogwai, and --believe it or not--some more subdued elements of Screaming Trees' early SST albums. Mostly instrumental, the band relies on repetition and spacy sound to get their point across, with the occasional distant vocal line here and there, utilizing longer songs to create hypnotic textures. The mood of the album is primarily one of an evil, sinister sounding one, and the reverbs are really good on here, as it sounds like they used actual reverb rooms to record these tracks in. This album is awesome, and must be heard to be appreciated. – Ryan Settee Left Off The Dial On popping in Floorian’s disc, it immediately felt warm and familiar, although it is hard to compare them to just one artist.  What I like is the heavy atmosphere that sounds droney, but amidst this background is a strong lead guitar that seems to go wherever it wants.  I don’t want to say that they sound like Oasis, because that will certainly give everyone the wrong impression.  But I’m going to say it anyway, because Floorian’s lead guitar sounds so much like Noel’s did when he spun all those loops around tracks like “Bring It on Down” and “Slide Away.”  At least that’s true on What the Buzzing’s opening track “Or So They Say,” as well as the nine-minute “Symptoms Alone.”  Then we quickly add a few shades of melancholy when “Descend” conjures up Mogwai and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Other tracks leave more open space for reverb and some acoustic strumming, and the vocals here are quite superb – again, like timid BRMC vocals a bit.  Gothic chants stir up the mood as “Overruled” opens, and I’m left wondering what tricks are left that Floorian haven’t tried.  They decide to add some backward guitar into the track to bring in some psychedelia.  The whole release is over 70 minutes long and is really quite superb.  Sometimes you just know from the start when an album will turn into a favorite, and if it’s long drifting rock dirges you’re looking for, Floorian has got them in spades. – Danny Rowe High Bias Dark psychedelia from Columbus, Ohio. The band veers deftly from raging guitar maelstroms like "Or So They Say" and "Alt.11" to almost ambient drifters like "Aether Spill" and "Heavium." While the band is expert at both approaches, it's at its best splitting the difference with spacey, feedback-ridden epics like "Symptoms Alone" and "Overruled." Admittedly, there are a ton of bands that do this kind of heavy psych orchestration, but if, like me, you think there can never be too many acid rockers frying amps and piercing eardrums, than Floorian will be happy to take you on your next trip. – Michael Toland Amazon.com Buzzing, rumbling, hypnotic psychedelia... There are echoes of Pink Floyd in a few tracks' whispery vocals, but Floorian's spacey electric rock has more of a buzzsaw drone than Floyd's most popular material. If you were to reach back to Floyd's pre-"Dark Side" releases, you'd have a better idea of the never-quite-ambient space rock offered here; there's plenty of atmospheric guitar and keyboards, punctuated by the sting of acid-rock leads, and a rhythm section that pokes and prods the music along at a zombie-like pace. Psychically, it's as if an amplifier has been left to hum underneath the players -- warm and consistent, but edgy at the same time. – Red Tunic Troll KZSU Zookeeper Online One part dream pop, another part acid rock, combine to make some excellent lush dreamy psyche rock with none of the “spacey wacey psychedelic 60’s” trappings that many bands of this ilk fall into (i.e. no wah wahs, etc). Lush layered guitars, understated echoey male vocs, nice rhythms, use of loops and noise, and just all around great forethought. Lots of this sounds like a melding of 4AD dream pop pioneers Ride and heavy trip rockers Loop (a band you should familiarize yourself with if you haven’t already, check the vinyl). Its nice to know that bands this stunning are still being formed. Great stuff, highly recommended. Play with Bethany Curve, Bowery Electric, Loop, Pink Floyd, Bevis Frond, Paik, Spacemen 3, Spiritualized, or even My Bloody Valentine. 1) dark spooky rock, lush and layered, w/ acid rock guitar 2) slower, tremolo, spacey, vocs come in slowly phrased and acid narcotic 3) ambient chill spacey apt intro to a stripped down gorgeous slow mindful journey into space 4) even deeper space intro with near Gregorian female chant leading into a fucking SPECTACULAR droney downtempo masterpiece, complete with backwards guitars; wow, who needs methadone when you have this? 5) upbeat, lush psyche rock, more standard song-like if that’s what youre looking for 6) looping noise intro, band enters in sync seamlessly and builds into another trippy masterpiece 7) good simple dream pop/space rock with a great ending/breakdown 8) tambourine and velvet underground guitar gives this slow one a 60’s flare, but not overtly, very pretty, Ride dual vocals 9) heavier feel, almost rockin 10) chill organ intro to pretty, slow/mid mid, organ fade in followed by slow guit arpeggio and stripped vocs, though minimal is quite lush – Your Imaginary Friend All Music Guide An expanded and revamped version of a similarly titled self-released CD from 2002, What the Buzzing shows the Cleveland quintet coming up with the type of solid if often unadventurous head-nodding psych-drone-zoneouts that satisfy those inclined to such sounds without the songs being distinct on their own. It's not that Floorian are bad — far from it. It's just that what was once distinct and strange is now so established in its own right as a subcultural force that its newer practitioners need to really do something memorable to stand out. It might be a bit unfair to focus in on song titles as an example, but the likes of "Aether Spill" and "Heavium" bespeak less making one's own mark than working comfortably with established tropes (an impression more positively bolstered by thank yous given to noted underground psychedelic beacons as Ptolemaic Terrascope's Phil McMullen and Eclipse Records' Ed Hardy). All this said, if there's a need to reach for something suitably laden with slow, doomy threat, half-whispered vocals, and lots of acid guitar freakout shimmer, sometimes backward-masked, but old standbys aren't doing the trick, one could do a lot worse than What the Buzzing. Its best moments are those where the band tries something different from the template it quickly establishes — thus the acoustic guitar fading into swirls of low, almost Main-like feedback on "Aether Spill" itself or the haunting, wordless keen that starts "Overruled." Generally speaking, the longer the song the more the band's efforts stand out, which suggests that they might well be one powerful live act, but the briefer "Waiting for It" actually comes across as an exultant, uplifting version of their style that could be the album's secret standout. One gets the feeling that Floorian could yet turn into something really striking, but until that time, this is promising rather than fully achieved. – Ned Raggett Sleazegrinder The term “psychedelic music” gets a bad rap these days. Used to be, it meant sweeping hypno-narco grooves that bore deep into the listener’s brain and swept them along on a sonic reproduction of the Heaven/Hell travels one could enjoy/endure after consuming the contents of your parents’ medicine cabinet. Now, any mope with a distortion pedal – or worse, a laptop and a fistful of loops -- can get labeled as psychedelic, but let’s call a spade a spade: to be truly psychedelic, there has to be a degree of danger to your music. There’s got to be some sense that at any point during any track, a hotwired lick or lumbering drum could send the listener tumbling into The Abyss, never to return. If there’s no doom, no whiff of brimstone amidst the scent of incense and peppermints, you might as well ask your listeners to call over Mom and Dad and give the record a spin as a family. Spaceman 3 understood that. So did the Butthole Surfers, Alice Donut and The Brian Jonestown Massacre (whose witch-king, Anton Newcombe, co-released this disc on his aptly-named Committee to Help Keep Music Evil label). And you can add Floorian to the list of true psychedelic astronauts who have plumbed the depths of the Narco-Hypno Wasteland, and returned with an altogether unsettling and fascinating CD. What the Buzzing’s ten tracks simmers slowly in an electric swamp teeming with feedback and reverb that glow like the will o’ the wisp, luring hapless (and hopefully, deeply stoned) listeners deeper and deeper into its blackness until they’ve lost their bearings, while every step sucks them down further and further into the muck. It’s never fun to watch yourself go down for the last time, but as the posters for The Trip wisely observed, it’s a Lovely Sort of Death… – Paul Gaita Culture Bunker Blasting, concrete floored, bare bulb hanging from a string, pumped full of drugs and waiting for the apocalpyse psychedelic droning. Welcome to Floorian, another release by the champion of underground heroin rock, Anton Newcombe's Committee To Keep Music Evil label. They mean what they say. Floorian is not good times 60s music. This is the nighttime violence of walking the streets with pockets full of money looking to cop. Take a slow motion Warlocks, breed with The Telescopes' shaky, reverb laced feedback, and adorn with the 4 a.m. lightheadedness of My Bloody Valentine and you're in the same squat. This is a sound island sighted by the Velvet Underground and charted by the pasty white black clad urchins pooring their life forces into their Fender Twin reverbs like a reverse vampirism. These mood-shifting pieces (only 2 are under 5 minutes long) beat with the pulse of interstellar space where Syd Barrett lost his way and lost his marbles. Except for the relatively straight forward and short "Waiting For It" this is an album full of deep space journeys. "Heavium" is a soul brother of VU's "Black Angel's Death Song," the 10 minute "Symptoms Alone" is a hypnotic concoction of repeated musical phrases and expanding frontal lobe dementia. The music wants you on the floor, blissed out, waiting for the man with the bag or the man with the scythe. – Paul Leeds Cleveland Free Times Plenty of bands evoke the psychedelic sounds of the '60s — but few are as heavy as Floorian, which emphasizes noisy guitars and feedback on this ten-track album that's essentially a reissue — enhanced with extra tracks — of the band's 2002 debut. Put out by the Committee to Keep Music Evil, a Bomp subsidiary run by Brian Jonestown Massacre frontman Anton Newcombe, What the Buzzing should benefit from wider distribution and an association with Newcombe. With guitarist John Godshalk providing the whispery vocals, Floorian turns up its amps for tracks such as “Descend” and the aptly titled “Heavium.” Self-described as “psychedelic space rock,” this stuff is every bit as eardrum-rattling as the dirges played by those noise-loving Scots Mogwai. – Jeff Niesel Earcandy Psychedelic space rock that makes me want to partake of the lambs wool. I mean, it makes me want to light up one big ol’ honkin’ spliff! I’m talking a box of Captain Crunch, a jar of peanut butter and maybe some fish sticks kinda spliff. This is trippy shit. I know because I don’t even like weed. I’m seeing shit just listening to it. Think of Pink Floyd when Syd Barrett was a viable member. Yeah, that kind of trippy. – J.R. Oliver Razorcake What The Buzzing is a spacey, tripped-out sonic sojourn into an alternate universe where a swirling mist of shimmering guitar rhythms guides the listener into a trance-like state of spiritual nirvana. Dreamy, otherworldly vocals majestically meander throughout the mix while radiantly hypnotic bass lines and meticulously plodding drum fills beautifully flow in a splendorous show of supreme unison. A near constant solar burst of intergalactic hallucinatory guitar leads, weeping extra-terrestrial feedback, and other abundantly arousing audio stimuli rises above the heavenly din and leaves the listener feeling as if he or she has inhaled a reality-altering hit of pure opium deep into the lungs. Like Rain Parade, Spacemen 3, and A Saucerful Of Secrets-era Pink Floyd before them, Floorian makes astral music of dreams while sweetly tumbling through the stratosphere. A-floating away on the clouds I now shall go. – Roger Moser Noize Italia Floorian's "What the Buzzing" is a record to taste according to one's situation and mood. A hasty, inattentive listening could make us want to get rid of it after a while. Too much long, static, boring. On the contrary, getting deeper into its dreamy atmospheres, a splendid universe is revealed. Floorian are pure psychedelic rock makers: their imagination is marked by great bands like Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream, Spacemen 3, Bevis Frond, Dead Meadow. But their song-writing and performance are original enough to put any influence aside. "What the Buzzing" is the fruit of a path that began at the end of the eighties, passes through the year 2002 (when Drigh Records released the first edition of the record) and arrives at the days when Bomp! Records released it again, adding two more tracks. The main axis of the band is formed by Todd Fisher (guitars) and John Godshalk (bass, vocals) supported, like in a great trip party, by Bill Spiropoulos (keyboards, guitars), Larry Durica (drums), Alex Lee Mason (guitars), Phillip Park (guitars), Keith Hanlon (drums), Rob Jarrett (drums) and Tabitha Kelley (voices). A sort of open collective that recalls the freak experimentalism as well as kosmische muzik traditions. The vibrations exhaled from this work are imbued with kraut and space rock and Californian psychedelia. A few fragments ("Or so they say" and "Descend" at the beginning, the fuzz-soaked monolith "Symptoms alone", the lysergic and Barrett-like "Alt.11") explode in blinding acid rock flames, in the best Quicksilver (yesterday) and Dead Meadow (today) style. Elsewhere, a quieter atmospheric mood prevails ("Overruled"); from minimalism ("Heavium" evoking Velvet Underground's ghost), to finely obscure, almost drone music ("Auravine"), and sometimes mystic and folky ("Aether spill", "Waiting for it"). The thin line that passes through the whole 70 minutes of its length is a hypnotic tension that finds a vent in loops, guitars and strange effects, finding its definitive completion in the conclusive "Somic", a dream turning into music. One needs the right approach to face a record like this one. Once you find the right key, the doors to Floorian's world will burst open. A microcosm where the only password is: psychedelia. -- Living Rain (big thanks to Dario Antonetti for translation!) Coloursonic Anton Newcombe, he of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, brings us this heavy slab of psychedelic space rock on his ‘Committee To Keep Music Evil’ label. Floorian have created a stunning album of mysterious, moving cavernous sonic landscapes, full of breathy vocals & shimmering with e-bow sustained narcotic space blues riffs. This self-produced album is “BIG” in every sense. The obvious influences here are early Pink Floyd, Jesus & Mary Chain, Spacemen 3, Ride etc, but Floorian have cooked up a sound of their own from similar ingredients. To simply label them as ‘Shoegazers’ or ‘Drone Rock’ though would be unjust due to the sheer powerful & uplifting nature of this album. The intro track ‘Or So They Say’ kicks things off with a raw sonic assault, and shows some nice production techniques & effects, punctuating the track in the right places and showing that the band are not just great musicians, but also talented producers. There are definite Eastern influenced leanings right through this album, and are used to great effect on the powerful instrumental, ‘Aether Spill’, sounding like Robert Plant’s Strange Sensation jamming with Floyd in Pompeii. Other songs here bring to mind The Doors majestic piece, ‘The End’, but perhaps with Kevin Shields at the helm. The closing track, ‘Somic’, offers a more sparse side to their song writing, conjuring up images of being lost in the fog but with the light just starting to shine through, and gently helping you to come down from the previous nine nuggets. When you take the headphones off and pick up the pieces, you can’t help but feel you’ve just experienced something special with this album. -- Scott Leslie Psyche Van Het Folk Floorian’s psychedelic style has some interesting variation. First of all, I like very much how they add, in various tracks, a sort of song expression with a late 60’s flavour, deliberately made for the jam-mood, like on “Or So They Say”, and always with a hush foggy voice. Their style in general is psychedelic, floating shoegaze-haze-rock based upon dreamy jams, meant for the hypnotic and atmospheric vibe which the musical form of psychedelia can bring, slightly stretching out into space. While in general, music with a tendency towards spacejams often leads to a certain stoned density, Floorian mostly succeeds well in keeping their sound rather attractive and light, even with a few moments leaning to something more acoustic. Some tracks are more atmospheric than others. The rhythms can be rather light too, but this is luckily compensated by the use of some variety in arrangements how to build up their starting ideas in certain jams. Different and original for instance is “Overruled” which starts with a certain calmness of a let’s say Byzantine-Gregorian improvisational voice, with certain buzzing overtone vocal (?) drone, before it turns into another semi-song jam mood, with a certain simple meditative effect and with some draft to drift, in a style which has something exotic, mixed with space-psychedelia. “Auravine” drifts the most, an ambient-space track starting from a more experimental loop. -- Gerald Psyche Scene Magazine (Cleveland) When Bomp Records head honcho Greg Shaw talks, people listen. The man who discovered and put out the first records by the likes of the Brian Jonesto-wn Massacre and the Warlocks, as w-ell as releasing the first Americ-an record by Spacemen 3, has just s-igned Floorian to his roster, so do-n't be surprised if you hear a lot more about these trippy cats from Columbus in the near future. Floorian's 2002 debut, What the Buzzing, on the Columbus indie Drigh Records is a staggering effort, channeling a dark, atmospheric vibe similar to the likes of early Pink Floyd and the first two Catherine Wheel records, as well as the best work by U.K. cult favorites such as the Comsat Angels and Loop. On songs like "Or So They Say," "Lenka," "In Slow Emotion," and the 10-minute juggernaut "Symptoms Alone," the instrumental interplay between bass player John Godshalk and the dueling guitars of Todd Fischer and Phillip Park is mesmerizing; slow-burning psychedelic buildups, complete with Near Eastern undercurrents, cascade into a trance-inducing avalanche. Phil Spector may have coined the phrase "wall of sound," but trust us, on What the Buzzing and especially live, Floorian has built a fortress. – Ben Vendetta Sonic Curiosity Dreamy guitars waft in the air, squealing, grinding, defining astral chords with tasty ease. Comfortable drums establish pleasant tempos in tune with the drifting melodies. Basslines rumble with ethereal vibrations, producing a tingly foundation underfoot. Keyboards trickle through the mix like sparkling water, cleansing as they enhance with their pensive drones. The keynote instrument is the guitar, though. These stringed manipulations achieve a transcendental disposition, building from a nebulous fog to screeching outcries. These cosmic moods possess a decidedly Grateful Dead ambience, which is further elaborated by lead guitars that seek quite foreign sonic territories with their languid sustains and bent notes. These lead guitars alternate between psychedelic stylings and gothic darkness, conjuring melancholia that then strives to escape the box with emotional exertions. There exists an initial lethargy which gradually becomes agitated to a surging movement in each song, but the overall music retains a congenial sedation. Some vocals are present, whispered and crooned in an unobtrusive manner. There's a romantic edge in this music, bestowing this spacerock with more than a touch of humanity, making the tunes more accessible. – Matt Howarth Aural Innovations #21 Music from all over the world shows up almost daily in my mailbox, but only rarely do I hear from anyone in my own backyard of Columbus, Ohio. So it was a thrill to find out that in addition to Quarkspace I've got another cosmic ensemble occupying my galaxy. Floorian has been active since 1997, the constants being guitarist Todd Fisher and John Godshalk on bass, keyboards and vocals. Phillip Park is the lead guitarist on all the quartet tracks and Rob Jarrett and Keith Hanlon handle drum duties on all except the last track which introduces us to relative newcomer Larry Durica, now part of the current Floorian trio lineup. I noticed some reviews at Floorian's web site listing My Bloody Valentine and Brian Jonestown Massacre as analogies though I'm a bit challenged having not heard much of those bands. But in my corner of the musical universe band like Pink Floyd, King Black Acid, Porcupine Tree, and even Amon Düül II come to mind. The album opens with "Or So They Say". This is the most accessible "song" on the album, but the dual guitars of Fisher and Park are mucho cosmic and give the music a beautifully full "wall of sound". "Heavium" has a gorgeously trippy Eastern flavor but is also embellished by strained whining guitar lines that tease the listeners senses, threatening to pierce the eardrum but never quite reaching damaging levels. I dig the looped efx at the end. "In Slow Motion", "Symptoms Alone", and "Alt.11" are among the most powerful tracks on the album. These songs remind me a lot of King Black Acid with a dose of Pink Floyd thrown into the mix. They have that majestic full sound that envelops and caresses the listener and I like the combination of aggressive chords and trip guitars. The guitarists excel at psychedelic passion in slow solos that will wrap themselves around your brain with snake-like grace. "Symptoms Alone", at 10 minutes, is a particularly potent tune that stretches out into space with cosmic abandon. The guitar solos, like the best of Pink Floyd, are slow and delectably tasteful. And once again the band find that perfect combination of grating feedback and floaty drifting bliss. "Lenka" and "Somic" are both duo tracks by Fisher and Godshalk. "Lenka" is one of the pieces that brought to mind an old tripped out Amon Düül II jam. The totally spaced music builds tension slowly, chords and notes working together in an exploratory but precise style that is mind-bending and hypnotic. "Somic" opens with very cool keyboards, an acidic guitar line, and a background throb that abruptly shifts into mellow drifting psychedelic music that once again has that King Black Acid/Pink Floyd sound. Fans of Porcupine Tree's Sky Moves Sideways album will especially find plenty to drool over with this mesmerizing tune. Finally, "Auravine" is the closing track and the one with drummer Durica. It's probably the most abstract music on the disc with low drones, freaky loops, and lots of slowly rumbling and whining guitars. Darkly thematic and very intense stuff that nicely contrasts with the rest of the album. In summary, Floorian beautifully mix old time sounds we love like Pink Floyd and a little Amon Düül II with more modern sounds like King Black Acid and Porcupine Tree. You'll love the combination of trippy raga guitars and crunchier heavy guitars. Recommended. – Jerry Kranitz Free City Media Not to be confused with Milan roots rockers The Floreans (reviewed below), Floorian has been playing around Columbus, Ohio since 1997. The band's debut CD What The Buzzing favors a- moody brand of psychedelic rock that is sort of a cross between My Bloody Valentine and the second phase of Pink Floyd, with some New Zealand drone tangents thrown in. The current members of Floorian are Todd Fisher (guitar), John Godshalk (vocals, bass & keyboards) and Larry Durica (drums), though Phillip Park played lead guitar on most of the album and Rob Jarrett and Keith Hanlon contributed the drums. Larry Durica joined the band during the sessions for the album and played guitar on "Auravine". What The Buzzing is an impressive debut that shows Floorian as a band that has chosen a very specifically defined dark and brooding indie psych sub-genre. The melodic strumming and Eastern-scale leads on the opener "Or So They Say" recall Outrageous Cherry or the early Blur b sides when Graham Coxon was allowed to explore his less commercial side. John Godshalk's vocals are hushed against the crunching guitars as they are throughout the whole album. "Heavium" and "Symptoms Alone" have a late-night tension that would have fit in on some of the earliest Brian Jonestown Massacre CDs. The heavier moments of Patrick Porter's Reverb Saved My Life provide a fair current comparison. These two tracks are also highlighted by some mind-bending backwards guitar from Phillip Park. "In Slow Motion" nicely merges a passive Roger Waters-style vocal with an unexpectedly hard-rocking riff. Drone fans will want to check out the two instrumentals "Lenka" and "Auravine", on which guitars hum menacingly over repeated off-kilter percussion loops. The gently inert "Somic" sounds like Bob Pollard peacefully dreaming about Pink Floyd's More soundtrack for eight and a half minutes. The real payoff comes in "Alt. 11" where a groove somewhat similar to The Bevis Frond's "Superseded" serves as a vehicle for some intense modal guitar jamming. What The Buzzing is a very entertaining album to hear while driving fast late at night. It also works well through headphones even later. The whispered vocals and droning guitars create a very personal space for the listener's mind to wander alone. I'll be interested to hear what direction Floorian takes on the next record with the new line-up set. For ordering information, contact Drigh Records, P.O. Box 20611, Columbus, OH 43220 or go to www.floorian.com. – Nick Bensen. Dream Magazine (#3) These Columbus, Ohio spacemen are on a mission to explore the outer reaches of their moodcasting abilities over the course of this 8-song self distributed CDR. Heavy slow and vast with post Barrett Floydian elements glacially residing beside more overtly krautrock moments. Really enjoyable; giving ample evidence of nearly unlimited potential, and rocking out in a satisfyingly enthused manner when they finally get the avalanche rolling downhill. – George Parsons Indieville.com Oh my! I wasn't expecting much from Floorian. Ninety-nine percent of the time, self-released debut albums simply suck ass. Major ass. But heck, What The Buzzing managed to prove my prejudiced theories wrong - and embarass my fragile ego, as well. Floorian is a self-described "hypno drone space vibrations" band that, well, don't exactly sound like a "hypno drone space vibrations" band. You see, Floorian is not droney at all. In fact, this album spends a considerable amount of its duration rocking out. It's perhaps better described as psychedelic space rock, falling somewhere in the midst of Pink Floyd, Mogwai, and the noisy side of Sebadoh. While some songs ("Lenka," "Auravine") are predominately atmospheric and soundscapey, the focus rests on a strong rock and pop influence that Floorian pulls off wonderfully. "Or So They Say," for example, sounds like a cross between Sebadoh and Archers of Loaf, except with a spacier, ground-lifting feeling to it. "Symptoms Alone", meanwhile, is a draining, nine-minute epic of intergalactic folk-rock, like what you'd get if you shot Yo La Tengo even further into the depths of space. "Auravine," meanwhile, focuses more on drones, making great use of a waivering bassline, a sparse beat, and some echoing, atmospheric sounds in the background. While certainly different from the more accessible material, it is a nice, airy composition. Altogether, Floorian have done a great job with What the Buzzing. Filled with amazing solos, galactic atmospheres, and catchy, all-enveloping bouts of rock, this is already one of the best psychedelic records of the year. 90% – Matt Shimmer The Broken Face (#14) Anytime I rate something below a 3 I feel it certainly deserves an explanation. For me, a 2.5 is a good album that has some major fault or is only going to be of interest to collectors. Add to that list quality albums by bands which haven't yet developed their own unique sound. Enter Floorian, an obviously talented group with some great sounds--but disappointingly, most of these are sounds you've heard before. The range is pretty diverse--My Blood Valentine/Spacemen 3 era late 80's psych, pre-Kranky Low, Barrett's Pink Floyd/Beatles [ala Blue Jay Way] , Labradford, and even some New Zealand pop via Alistair Galbraith/Terminals/Renderers; Certainly an incredible selection of influences. What's amazing however is just how easily an album like this -could- be terrible. Instead, once I got over the 'tribute-ish' nature of most of these songs, I could begin to hear the band itself--their performance and their ability to write songs, and found myself enjoying 'What the buzzing' despite the obvious limitation. What we have here is a band that is groping for its own unique sound, but still demonstrating considerable talent. With that said, 'What the buzzing' may be a prelude to a great band with a great catalogue, but 'What the buzzing' only hints at things to come. – Chris Moon Psychedelic-Music.Net Don´t wanna take a fortelling, but for me this gem is in my Psychedelic TOP5 and is currently set on Place ONE. The whole sound is some kind of carefully gentle, sparsly using breaks or freakouts. The guitar flows Like a majestic river, through a landscape of tight grooving rock in slow-motion. This is no second boring and when the fellow traveller has a wish, it will be fullfilled. Amazingly. It sound like Pink Floyd want sound, after Syd´s demise. But never reached again. A present comparision is Burnt Noodle, who are also from the middlewest. Floorian are more structured. This are real songs, not sessions. Stongly hoping for more to come. – alie Dead Ernest Take liberal helping David Gilmour - the Pink Floyd brand - add it to your King Black Acid mixture then fold in some Porcupine Tree. Roast it over a high heat to remove the keyboards then place in a hot oven, allowing it to rise up and leave for approx 52 minutes while keeping a watchful eye on it to ensure it doesn't bubble over. What you have here is a new talent from the USA, and it's guitars all the way. The feel and sound of it all is a mix of the aforementioned bands and yet both rises above mere pigeon-holing, while at the same time sounding both fresh and original, yet oddly not a million miles away from the very emotions you get out of such music. With short and long compositions alike, the sound is huge, with all sorts of guitar leads, riffs, rhythms, textures and effects creating some kind of giant organic psychedelic trip that still has that relaxed and flowing set of dynamics as evinced in the works of Gilmour and the Porcies. The vocals are in a similar vein, that sort of languid, subdued style then rising up in a sea of harmonies, all coming together spectacularly on the near six minute 'In Slow Emotion', which could be almost a lost late era Floyd track in a blindfold test, it's that good. The way the guitars are used is also pretty spectacular, the backdrops making up for the absence of any keyboard type things, and the overall production giving a very expansive feel to the whole thing. 'Somic' is another illustration of the talents of the main man behind all this, being over eight minutes featuring just electric guitars and slightly treated vocal, yet having a soundscape that stretched all over the musical horizon, while at the same time possessing a similar feel and pace to something like Fleetwood Mac's 'World In Harmony' instrumental mixed with Pink Floyd's 'Us And Them'. Throughout the album, it's the mix of the brooding, the anthemic and the ocean-length soundscaping, allied to some wicked electric guitar work, a more intelligent psychedelic feel and the sense of structure all with emotion and heart, that makes this a very fine and strong debut album. – Andy Garibaldi Roelf on Floorian No 20 minute guitar solos here. This is about atmosphere taking precedence over ego. The studio becomes an important paintbrush in these soundscaping journeys. The first cut, "Or So They Say" reminds me of being lost in a chemically imbalanced state and trying to find someone or something to complete you. You don't know what you're looking for or how to get it but you enjoy the process of exploring to get there. "Heavium" is an interesting cut because right when I think I'm in the middle of a traditional song structure I get hit with backwards guitars from out of nowhere. This provides an interesting segue into the next song. "In Slow Emotion" reminds me alot of Pink Floyd with David Gilmour at the helm. Pre-"Dark Side of The Moon" when The Floyd were a much more psychedelic band. The vocals are a dead ringer for Gilmour. I like this cut alot. It's inspiring me to want to trip again on pure unadulterated creativity. Get back in touch with that very first awakening to discovery as a child. "Lenka" brings us around the campfire where the shamen is shaking his rattler to induce an altered state. The steady hypnotic pulse calls the backwards snake guitars to slither over on top of the rhythm. I'm getting a chill up my spine as I feel this Native American ritual build in intensity. Imagine floating round and round this fire until you get visions of deceased elders telling you what to do to snap out of your inertia and create an evolutionary pathway for your soul. I like how "Somic" starts out with distorted guitar and then drops out to leave a keyboard's hovering chordal drone. This music tucks you into bed and hypnotizes you into sleep where you can enjoy the ultimate altered state of dreaming. A perfect setup for disassociation with your conscious mind. Repeat this mantra before going under: "I'm not just getting high. I'm getting out." "Symptoms Alone" helped me see past all my thought illusions. I realize that there's a guardian of muse waiting where negativity ends. Now that I've traced the symptoms back to their root cause I can go from being a mere spectator of things to becoming a participator in the bigger trip. As a participator I see guitars sultry and slowly melting into UFOs taking off into each and everyone's own unique resonances. "Alt 11" is an audio documentation of liquid lava in the hands of earthbound gods trying to rise out of this world. Fillmore East and West revisited in 2002. Something subliminally sinister is going on and I don't know exactly what it is. You better watch out for this Floorian. They practice musical mysticism with eerie intent. These guys are casting spells on you and I'm not quite sure what they're getting you into. It's that mystery of the unknown that's so captivating about Alt 11. Walk away from your illusions of predictability and let Floorian immerse you in mystery. Freefall in that mystery with no fear of where you'll land. The unknown is your only true liberator of consciousness. We need that unpredictability that only mystery can give us, returning us back to our sacred primal selves. "Auravine" is sinister ambience created by weavers of spells. The tones here are so powerful in the hands of these master mystery weavers that if played for 20 minutes or more would deliver you to the astral plane. It would take a long time for the avatars to be able to bring you back to earth. They might never be able to bring you back. Why would you want to come back? – Roelf Tornabene, gorging artist ...more musings from Roelf... DemoUniverse Diverging from their brash brethren on the Columbus garage-rock scene, Floorian shroud their sound in purple cloaks of reverb, riven by golden threads of spiraling feedback. “Heavium” employs tambourine and softly thumping tom to support a deep, droning vocal. Huge guitars bloom like mushroom clouds from the cavern of “Or So They Say,” drowning the vocal in swirls of steel vibration. It's all quite groovy and, if you don't mind a '60s rehash, worth the trip. – Jim Santo OTHER COMMENTS "Impressive debut. Best Psychedelic record this year - so far." – Psychedelic-Music.net "Elegant, yet... threatening." – local scenester "What was that last song? It was like someone died or something." – some guy (after live set) "Interesting dark sound, some decent tunes." – indie label head "Yeah, you do that blue music... I like what you guys are doing." – record store cat