"LA Egypt" (Vinyl Williams song) – Queen City Sounds and Art

Vinyl Williams, photo courtesy the artist

On “LA Egypt” Vinyl Williams invokes the blend of classic pop, lounge and psychedelia as embodied by The Free Design (which the somewhat like-minded Stereolab invoked on its own song of the same name from 1999’s Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night) and Brazilian Bossa Nova, jazz funk legend Arthur Verocai. The colorful and hypnotic video parallels the hazy, layered aesthetic that hits you gently but is simultaneously rich in content. It offers a view into an imaginative alternative reality in which shifting between inner and outer space is effortless and offers a path to creating a kind of non-invasive Utopia that anyone can access at will. What makes the track remarkable is that while it is very rooted in a way to previous forms of music and established styles it is not trapped by their conventions. It is equally informed by the well-crafted chill of the previously mentioned artists as it is by the recent wave of psychedelia and dream pop. But you don’t hear it and immediately think it’s basically a decent imitation of Tame Impala or Sound of Ceres. The guitars swirl perfectly into the stream of keyboards, synth and ethereal vocals. There is a at times a disciplined, Krautrock-esque rhythm but one that gives way to an abstract flow into infinite horizons. It is also a fine introduction to Vinyl Williams’ latest album Azure LP which released June 5, 2020 on Requiem Pour Un Twister as Williams once again takes us on an aural journey we didn’t know we needed but glad we undertook. For the album art Williams combined over twenty-five paintings as a cognate of the attention to detail and focused creativity that went into composing the music within. Watch the video for “LA Egypt” on YouTube and connect with Vinyl Williams at the links provided include that for the interactive version of the video.