Magic Eye - Babylon (2014)

Treba ti 15 minuta da u šećeru lubenice rukom napipaš skrivenu kasetu s narkoleptičkim dream-popom i smočenim, raspadajućim shoegazeom.

 

 

 

Co-ed Edinburgh Nyquil-pop trio Magic Eye have always favored a faded, falling-through-clouds songwriting mode but Babylon filters their opaque space-echo shoegaze through new narcoleptic fidelities, birthing their best collection yet. Comprised of Alex (guitar/programming), Bek (guitar/vocals), and Roma (vocals), they suffered the rite of passage indignity of recording their first set of songs at an overly pro studio, rendering the results grit-less and dried out. Fortunately they regrouped, salvaged the stems, and methodically pieced everything back together into a lusher, degraded haze. Later takes of a couple of these cuts surfaced on last year's Shreddin' On Heaven's Door cassette but the Babylon versions predate them, primordial heroin hanging in the sky, beautifully blurred, naked, and melting in the light. Mastered by Elvis Valentine. Artwork and layout by BB. Edition of 99. - www.midheaven.com/

A new lo-fi-as-hell cassette from Not Not Fun? Oh yes, friends. It’s called Babylon and comes from Edinborough trio, Magic Eye. Here’s a track appropriately titled “Bollywood.”  This is a strange one; immediately turning me off with shrieking highs, I assumed this was a sort of low effort vapor-wave deal, grabbing an actual Bollywood artifact and putting it through the ringer. There’s a real Casio-through-Boss-DS-1 vibe to it at first, that sweet and crunchy misuse of hi-frequency clipping we’ve all messed around with. Only after re-reading the email from Britt and realizing three people were involved in the making of “Bollywood” did I start questioning Magic Eye’s motives.

So! Get over the pain and see the rather pretty composition going on behind it. You have a Magic Eye that is probably using normal instrumentation to make some mountaintop moments from classic bollywood films. I see Sound Of Music with better dancing, Maria’s habit looking more than a little bit more colorful, and the nazis leaving everybody the fuck alone. Classic Not Not Fun, right? “How do you solve a problem like Britt and Amanda Brown?” The label confuses before it impresses. I’ve wondered whether they’re on the ball or choosing to not run after it, and I prefer to think the latter. Weird stuff in droves, risks in fidelity that seem unchallengeable in an Echo Park setting, the beauty of curation more interested in color than traditional musical judgments, and as always, a wonderfully matching bit of album art. I wonder what the rest of this tape will be like. Babylon hits the streets on February 4th. Cop it via Not Not Fun. - Phil Diamond       

Like when you’re whistling in a hallway or humming in the shower, Magic Eye have captured the natural vibration of sound within their newest cassette, Babylon. Stirring from the mystical incantations of the dimensional West — way beyond any Earthly location — Magic Eye slowly breathe out swirls from every speaker, reaching deep in melons and nodes, and frying at spaces sizzling the in-betweens. No doubt, Babylon is a pinnacle within modern cassette culture, a study that encapsulates pure tape hiss, beautifully scarred melody and rhythm, care, and research — pitch-perfect parameters pouring at speaker seams. There’s a 97-year-old woman who, every day, walks outside just once to retrieve her newspaper, and it takes her no more than 15 minutes to feel part of the world, draw it in, and become a part. Magic Eye stay true to their art and behold a world of sheer wonder within the cassette tape of Babylon. –C Monster