Published on Jun 26, 1997
I knew I was in trouble when I opened up the press kit for
Canadian band Magic Music when one of the first images I was
greeted with was the drawing of a bare-breasted woman holding two
snakes. My worry was that I was in for an evening of listening to
experimental electronic music with bizarre lyrics.
And after listening to
Dark To Light, I stood corrected in my assumption that the
album would be filled with bizarre sexual imagery. And it was not
the bizarre electronic nightmare I thought it would be. But the
band suffers from its own ambitions.
The band’s core is comprised of vocalist Frank Phillet and
guitarist Neil MacIver, who spent the better part of the past ten
years recording and mixing this album for its eventual release
about a year ago. After spending almost three decades together
working on and refining their style, they have only been met with
rejection from the majors, telling them their songs have no
commercial potential.
I don’t think I’d go that far, but you’d be hard-pressed to hear
someting similar to Magic Music’s style on the radio today. It is a
style that taqkes some getting used to – and frankly, I can’t say
I’m quite used to it yet.
The lyrics seem to fall under the “stream of consciousness”
style – Phillett’s lyrics often don’t rhyme or follow any true
rhythmic pattern with the music. On songs like “Friday Night At The
Bookclub,” this works as a disadvantage for the band; keeping some
order to go with the music’s tempo would go a long way in improving
this band. (And I don’t care how poetic the imagery is, this song
proves that cock-rock is still cock-rock.)
Often, it feels like the band doesn’t have the confidence it
needs to break out and make their presence heard on the
instrumentation. I found myself constantly waiting for the drums to
really kick in or for MacIver to kick his guitar into overdrive and
put some muscle into the mix. Just a small shift in instrumental
style would have spoke volumes on songs like “Lifeforce:Deathfoce”
and “Under Another Moon.”
I also found myself waiting for Phillet to cut loose in the
vocal department. When he has the courage to do so on songs like
“It’s Just My Foolish Heart,” it adds a whole new dimension to the
music. But for the most part, Phillet’s delivery is quite
melancholy – and that’s not always a good thing.
Even when Magic Music tries to cut loose on “The Radiant Blue
Horizons,” the change in style makes them sound uncomfortable. And
I’m not arguing that they should mold themselves into the sound of
a bar band, ’cause I don’t think it would work for them. But when
they’re on, like they were on “It’s Just My Foolish Heart” – hell,
even when they come close to the target on “Lifeforce:Deathforce,”
you can hear the difference.
Maybe part of the problem is that they have spent over a decade
writing, recording and mixing this album (someone wanna warn Tom
Scholz that he’s got company?). In my experience, there comes a
time when you’ve done all the work you can do on a project, and you
just have to let it go and hope for the best, rough edges and all.
In the case of
Dark To Light, it maybe was in the shop a little too
long.
I hate writing negative reviews of independent bands, because it
may make them think they don’t have a chance of competing against
established bands – c’mon, do you
really think I’m looking forward to another decade of crap
from Motley Crue? But maybe one grows with constructive criticism.
In the case of Magic Music, they’re not a bad band –
different, yes, but not bad. And maybe someone who can
appreciate the weirdness of, say, King Crimson, can appreciate the
moods Phillet and MacIver are setting on
Dark To Light. But the average listener is normally not
willing to expend the extra time or thought towards “stream of
consciousness” music. My advice: tighten up the lyrics just a bit,
have the courage to put some crunch in to the instrumentation, and
call me when it’s done.