by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Two years removed from their full length debut, Atlanta’s Floral Print are set to release their self-titled follow up EP, this Friday, July 31st via Tiny Engines. In the years since they’ve been listening and learning, structuring and reconfiguring a sound that really does set its sights on undefinable. It’s pretty emo (or sad pop if you must) but on the other-hand, it’s always pretty experimental, borrowing diverse elements from jazz and post-hardcore. If nothing else, their shape is constant motion, forever changing as complex structures push and pull their knotted pop.
Opening with the constantly unpredictable “Six Pillows,” the band take enough hard left turns that you’d swear they’re going in circles. There’s some stellar musicianship at play, as they dig in but sound continuous and fluid, able to fill any space and be gone the next moment. Even after five minutes of explorative wonder, all bets remain off, and Floral Print continue to shake out new paths, just when you thought you understand the map. The record continues in this manner, dropping you deeper into the sonic blueprint of disorienting interlude bliss (“Vermillion”), jagged slowcore sprawl (“Alice Arm”), and warped classical / power-pop fusion (“Viridian”). If there’s anything to take away from Floral Print it’s that while familiar, you’ve never heard anything quite like it.