The Best Music is Sometimes the Hardest to Find a taste of new music by torben floor by: bill aicher 09.14.00

Beauty is sometimes found in the places you least expect it. Not that I expect to find beauty on MTV or in pop radio, but I never expected to find it in my mailbox.

A few years ago however, I did. It was in an envelope addressed to Music-Critic.com. I opened it, and found a few CDs from Waterdog Music, including one called Live Music in the Apartment by an unknown band named Torben Floor. I tossed it aside onto the already immense pile of indie acts which have sent their works of "art" to our offices. I filed their pictures, bios, and press material under the appropriate heading and let the disc gather dust.

A few months later I revisited the album. It was a lonely night, so I decided I may as well go through some of the albums we hadn't gotten to. That night changed my life forever. I was introduced to Torben Floor, a band which I believe is one of the greatest undiscovered marvels in the world. And I am not alone in this belief.

This article, however, is not a review of Live Music in the Apartment. If you want that, read our review (and we highly suggest you do). This is instead a look forward. A look into the future of Torben Floor, and a plea to the major labels to take a look at them. A plea for their music to be heard throughout the world.

We have recently acquired a sampling of new recordings from the band, including studio versions of songs off of Live Music... as well as a heap of new music.

Pretty much all I can say is "wow."

They have undergone an unbelievable amount of growth in these few years. The studio tracks from Live Music... have taken on a new life, and lead vocalist and main writer Carey Ott has put even more emotion into the lyrics.

The band has progressed as well. Instrumentally the music has become more complex, while still retaining that hopeful beauty the band possessed that lonely night in the apartment.

A hope for love.

A hope for acceptance.

A hope for life.

You can lose yourself in it.

But you can hear me wax poetic about their music in the review of the old album. Just keep in mind that they have grown even more since then. And not just in the studio.

I did get a chance to see the band when they were in town one April night as well. The show was at a little place called The Annex, a small club attached to the Regent Street Retreat. The crowd was sparse and the darkness made it difficult to see anything before the show started. Most of the people had come to see Madison natives Muzzy Luctin.

Off in the corner I saw the band. A few were talking to their girlfriends, but after a few minutes they started to set up their equipment. Their equipment guy was sick.

The band possesses a stage presence I haven't seen before in an unknown band. The stage, hardly larger than my walk-in closet, was theirs. The whole room was theirs. I am pretty sure I was the only person there who knew the words (besides a friend who, like me, adores this band). It didn't matter though, the rest of the audience was theirs as well.

It is one thing to hear the music at home on your cd player. It is totally different to experience it.

Watching Torben Floor take control of that room was an experience.

A memorable experience.

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