Holy Magick - Holy Magick

Sometimes album covers are perfect indicators of what kind of music you can expect on the album itself. Case in point, Holy Magick, an album by the Brighton sextet of the same name. In essence, explorations into what kind of effect you can get when you turn one of ‘dem’ magic mushrooms upside down before you taste them.

Former Death In Vegas man Dom Keen and singer-songwriter Siobhan Lynch alongside their cohorts (Steve Ingham drums, Luis Bradshaw bass, Lewis Magill guitar, and Thom Carter keyboards) on the surface have taken elements that have proven to work well and have given them the upside down treatment.

Hazy psych guitars, Velvet Underground melodic progressions, dream pop sultry female vocals akin to Mazzy Star, that juicy, red mushroom top, but with a kind of a bitter-tasting lyrical edge, like the root with all the earth still hanging on. As the band put it themselves, “It’s an album about surviving and adapting in a world of maladjusted romantic notions and a look at the quest for love without the rose-tinted spectacles - in all its filthy and strange guises.”

The band are able to swing it both ways musically, whether it is the slowed-down, subtle “Hungry Mind”, or the more uptempo fuzz-laden “It’s Your Money”. And while all the musical elements taken might sound like a familiar fare, Holy Magick is able to place them together in a manner that still sounds fresh and interesting without resorting to well-trodden templates.

While the band’s playing is not to be faulted at all, the key to making the album work lies in the fact that Lynch and Keen are able to combine all they know and love, giving it the right hot/cold edge Holy Magick want to create. That is particularly the case with two stand-out tracks here, “Makes No Sense” and “Panic!”, the first one of those late night burners and the latter an example of what good dream pop should sound like.

Ok, so you might have heard music like this before, but Holy Magick is certainly one of those grower albums you somehow instinctively go for when ‘that mood’ hits you.