From the Long Grass
There’s retro rock and then there’s retro psychedelia, this
latter less effective alliteratively, but just as prevalent in this resurgence
of music reflecting times before.
Magic Castle from Minneapolis create psychedelic dream pop
and folk that has echoes of the 60s/70s but also the 80s/90s of similar reflectors
Jesus Jones and The Stone Roses. Give-aways are, for example, in the flute
playing on third track Dragonfly,
leading into the sweet and gentle harmonies of the melody. Opener Trembling
Hands is even more lush in its West Coast harmonising, and fourth Silent continues the soft vocal focus,
the singing planted in the background, like a floral set-piece producing colour
from a bed of long grass.
And like that lawn with rooted flowers, musical movement and
fragrance are carried on a light breeze – there are no thunderous storms to let
loose, Rebecca’s Wild a prime example
of such gentleness as a song and the antithesis of a title. White Stone arouses itself with some
fuzz and more ostensible psychedelic sounds in the other guitar work, but this
too is framed by harmony rather than frenzy, and there is at times a sense of
The Moody Blues in its relatively louder moments.
The longest track at eight minutes is Mole People, and this embraces the underground theme with more
atmospheric rather than elaborate guitar playing, the sustained wails merging
with 60s organ swirls, though it does also rise to a full-ish psychedelic swirl
near its end.
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