Denmark’s underground music scene is synonymous with some of the best content to come out of northern Europe in the past forty years, and in their album Funhouse Mirror, the country’s own Vinyl Floor is looking to continue this rich tradition with some of the most insightful indie rock tunes I’ve listened to in a long time. Although humble lyrical themes are a staple of this record’s tracklist, Vinyl Floor shows off a lot of straightforward charm that I didn’t see coming here, and it’s nonetheless giving their music all the more appeal to audiences worldwide this autumn.
The lead vocal has quite a dynamic relationship with every beat in this LP, and yet there are no instances where it feels like one is leading the other. In a song like “Dear Apollon,” or even the epic closing number “Days,” there’s a continuity between singer and drummer that makes the rhythm of the music feel almost lyrical in a sense, as if it’s going to clarify a statement made behind the microphone so much more definitively than any set of pipes ever could. This would pose a lot of friction in a lesser band, but it does the exact opposite for Vinyl Floor here.
The absence of frills in tracks like “Pretty Predictable” and “Clock With No Hands” undeniably emphasizes the minimalist magic of their arrangements, and because of how crisp the production quality is in all of this material, there’s never a moment where we’re left to search for the tonal origins of a specific instrument. Everything here is traceable as if we were sitting before the band in a live concert as opposed to listening to what they can do from within the four restrictive walls of a recording studio, and it seems entirely deliberate on the part of these musicians.
Despite the fat-free mix, every part of the music sounds full in Funhouse Mirror, especially in the case of multi-pronged compositions like “Anything You Want” and “Death of a Poet.” Even the title track would have sounded a little flimsy were it not given this polished treatment from the performers breathing life into it in the first place, and I certainly see where someone could make the argument that all of the power behind an expensive production technique wouldn’t have been able to compensate for what the players are contributing on their own here.
Critics have been in love with Thomas Charlie Pedersen’s music for a hot minute now, and it makes sense why when listening to what his band is doing in Funhouse Mirror. Whether you’re new to the game or are a veteran of this sound, Funhouse Mirror is a surprisingly engaging indie rock effort that doesn’t overthink its conceptualism; contrarily, this is one of the most self-aware records I’ve had on my desk in quite some time, and I hope it isn’t the last release of its kind that we’ll be hearing from this outfit. After all, Vinyl Floor has a lot to offer, and a good bit of it can be found in this tracklist.
Jodi Marxbury