Fantastic Magic
"Witch Choir" CD
Abandon
Ship Records
Genre:
Sep 9 2008 |
Freaky and folky, Witch Choir is nothing if not whimsical. A
ten track album in twenty-three minutes probably sounds pretty
fragmented, and indeed it is. But that is integral to the fun - it
sounds as if Fantastic Magic recorded this record around a
campfire, bringing songs to fruition mere minutes after their
conceptualization. As such, the songs share a weirdo folk theme, but
are quite stylistically quixotic. This makes it a difficult record to
digest, let alone describe.
With that said, the most notable aspect
of Witch Choir is its straightforwardness - despite its
whimsical nature, most of these tracks are unarguably SONGS. The most
accessible, "songlike" moment on this ten track record is "Moat
Island," which combines tinny falsetto
vocals with an acoustic guitar part. A tad more eerie is the outsider
folk-pop of "Flowerbeds," but it is the especially polished "I've
Covered the Halls, With Glitter and Awe..." that earns top marks
here, laying a filtered vocal melody over
trumpet, guitar, and a punchy rhythm section. Aside from its more
accessible side, Witch Choir is also littered with a sprinkling
of avant-garde excursions - be it the discordant improv of "Balloons"
or the insane psychedelic freeformery of "Etains Whirlwind."
Overall, this is a great little package from the Abandon Ship crew.
A guaranteed gem for lo-fi and weird folk
fanatics, Fantastic Magic's Witch Choir is the type of
free and wild outsider pop music you wish your friends were cool
enough to play.
fantastic magic's myspace
81%
youuuuuuuutube!:
"sea of gold"
live,
"flowerbeds" live
Matt Shimmer
[Vitals: 10 tracks,
22:55, distributed by
the
label,
released 2008] |
