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Jun 24, 2020 Web Exclusive By Scott D. Elingburg

The music of Vinyl Williams defies any easy categorization. Helmed by musician and visual artist Lionel Williams, the grandson of cinematic composer John Williams, the music tilts hard toward neo-psychedelia and blissed-out pop but bridges all the gaps between the once-ubiquitous chillwave, the soundscapes of ambient music, and the melodies found in Krautrock and lo-fi. The band’s description on their Bandcamp page, however, comes closest to nailing down their mercurial sound: celestial pop. 

Azure, the group’s latest LP, is 11 bright, burgeoning psychedelic pop songs borne from the seeds of band’s like The Zombies, Can, and Dungen. Azure is a distillation of these diverse sweet sounds, all of them pieced together atop gliding rhythms and heady AM pop. The slight swing of tracks like “Zum” and “Magicland,” the acoustic guitar chimes and Tropicalia strum of “Soft Soul” and “Sunny Moon,” and the soft pop of the title track “Azure” and album opener “LA Egypt,” are immediately irresistible to the ears. This is music to soundtrack late summer evenings and lucid dreams. On most tracks, Williams’ voice is doused in reverb until it floats away underneath his own melodies; beneath his vocals, the band peddles steady rhythms built around bass and drum. It’s the foundation that the band builds upon, bringing life and propulsion to kitchen-sink tracks like “Machu Picchu” and album closer “Earth Observatory.” Meanwhile, the song titles are indicative of the mood and spirit of the record, each one setting up geographical sonic and psychological space for the music to take hold in the soil. 

The deceptive simplicity of Azure is its greatest power and its greatest appeal. Certain tracks might sound soft or delicate, until you peel back the layers that each one holds. Songs cycle through into the next, begging the listener to tune in and stay for just one more song. As a whole album, Azure is a gorgeously rendered aural world to submerge your mind and body into. (www.vinylwilliams.com)

Author rating: 7/10