All Ears: Magic Alex ‘Chica Chica’

Look. I know. But it’s not like anyone reads this stuff so my almost non existent posting makes no odds. Thing is, I like doing this. I need to do it more. I hereby resolve to do it more.

So anyway, I’ve been meaning to do this post for a while. It’s funny how things catch up with you eventually. I like a bit of twitter and when @magicalex69 started following me it caught my attention. In my Maker days there was a band called Magic Alex who we rather liked.

And lo, @magicalex69 turns out to be none other than Dean Taylor, singer with Magic Alex, the band from my olden days. Imagine. They’re a band whose name frequently pops up when my old music muckers get round a table for some fizzy ones. It was a curious one because their guitarist was John Simm. Whatever happened to him eh? “Oh I know,” says Dean, “all that talent and no reward, it’s been a nightmare for him.”

He was very much on the up at the time having just put in a shift on the excellent TV series “The Lakes”. So were Magic Alex any good or was it shameless oh he’s off the telly head-turning? Don’t all rush at once to answer that. Thing was, as grubby music hacks we spent our lives hanging out with bands… full of famous people. Why on earth would we say Magic Alex were good just because him off of the telly played guitar for them?

They were good, very good, but the John Simm thing did smear the edges. They were a bunch of mates from Manchester, old school pals I think, and they were just doing what pals do. Form a band, have a laugh. It happened that one of their number was a bit famous and they leveraged that to get a bit of attention. Whatever it takes, right? I’ve seen worse crimes.

And when you take a listen, even 10 years on, tracks like “Super KK”, “Chica Chica” (see above), “Older”, “Country Feeling”, they’re all corkers. There’s little doubt they could write a tune and, importantly, to us as at any rate, they were enormously good fun. They made me honk laughing, must try dig out the original piece I wrote.

Dean pointed me in the direction of some old treasures, a few YouTube films that made me shriek with delight, but best of all I discovered there was an album. It didn’t see the light back in the day, but thankfully it finally surfaced in 2009 and is very much worth a listen a two.

The original Magic Alex, for anyone who is still reading, was a self-proclaimed electronics whizz who hung out with The Beatles. He talked a good game, or maybe it was the drugs, but he got the job of building The Beatles a new studio in the basement of the Apple building on Savile Row. His best idea wasn’t the inclusion of 72-track tape machine, but replacing the acoustic baffles around Ringo’s drums with an invisible sonic force field. Like I say, maybe it was the drugs. Google him, he’s worth reading about.

More hear…
- The album, ‘Dated And Sexist’, is here…
- The YouTube vids are here, here and here.

All Ears: … Of Diamonds ‘… Of Diamonds Theme’

In an almost unprecedented move, it’s two-posts-for-the-price-one-Thursday here at MNFB. Usually, you’re lucky if you get two posts in the same month, let alone the same week. The same day? We are feeling a giddy and will probably need a little lie down soon.

So, anyway… we like ellipses round here so this lot are causing us some bother with their very name. For example, we can’t use an ellipse in the title like we usually do, because it looks all odd. So from now on, it’s dashes until we are once again writing about a band without an ellipse in their name.

… Of Diamonds are a girl group from Norwich. They do a kind of harmonious electro pop – which makes them sound like St Etienne, which they don’t. It’s much more raucous than that, much edgier. How much more edge we don’t yet know, because like all the best things, we only get a tantalising glimpse into their world. The YouTube channel features three short videos, which are a bit like peering at them through a fuzzy keyhole. The canteen video is strangely unsettling. They appear to be in Japan, possibly. What we really like is how in this plugged in, switched on, head-full-up world they’ve managed to grab our attention without, like many new bands, having to chuck the kitchen sink at us.

Also on offer are three tracks to flap your ears along to. They say they want people to be able to whistle their tunes, which is always a good thing. And we suspect, when all is revealed, they may well do whistleable by the wheelbarrow.

We really like the wigged out Kraftwerk of ‘… Of Diamonds Theme’ (see above) and the Stereolab-ish ‘Weirdo’ (available as a free download from Soundcloud), but our favourite so far is ‘Frank Says’, of which we only get an tiny glimpse, but it mixes the sweetest la-la-las with a more sinister vocal that stabs at you like knitting needles. It comes on like something we can’t quite put our finger on. Answers on a postcard if you can name that tune. We think it might be Underworld?

Apparently, there’s live dates lined up for October. We’ll be there, no doubt.

More hear…
- A free download of ‘Weirdo’ off of soundcloud.
- A website.
- And finally, the aforementioned YouTube channel.

Okay, so we’ve banged on a-plenty about Space Raiders. Not going to stop now. They’ve just signed the marvellously monikered Penny and Ashtray to their label. Listening with both ears wide open, it’s fantastically squonky stuff and if the Raiders had a label, which they do, this latest signing is akin to asking the hoary old what on earth attracted Debbie McGee to the millionaire Paul Daniels question.

From Osaka, Momoyo Kubo and Tamotsu Ide already have one album of their quite thrilling glitch disco under their stylish belts, 2008′s ‘The Secrets of Galaxy Z’. Bestest news is that number two, ‘Monolith and Mirrorball’ will be heading your way on 28 November.

Here – well not here, but just above, at the top of the page, got it? Good – we have a sneaky peaky at ‘Sex Appeal’ from the forthcoming album. We rather like glitch disco.

More hear…
- Buy stuff here, and here.
- Space Raiders label, right here.

Freshly landed in my direction comes this Bristol lot. First thought is, blast, they know a thing or two about an intro. Second thought is, blast, they know a thing or two about more than just intros. You see, ‘Kilkeel’ feels fair fit to burst before the vocal even kicks in. Inside the first minute it just comes at you in waves. And leaves you in waves, and covers you in waves in between. It’s one heck of a song, just swamps you in sound.

And who does that voice remind me of? Ian McNabb I think, Icicle Works. Or is it the song that reminds me of something. It’s driving me a bit mad. Best of all, it’s available as free download from that there bandcamp. Have to say, am looking forward to hearing more from this lot.

Yes, yes, it’s been literally ages. Determined to get back into the swing. No, really. Will ease back in gently. Actually it’s all a bit dusty in here. Need to go about it with some polish and a duster. Anyway…

Had a nice email the other day about the magnificent Ivan Campo who we featured on these very virtual pages about a million years ago. Seems they have an album heading our way, called ‘What Went Wrong?’ on 11 July 2011 (feel like I have to put the date in, such is the infrequency of posts). You can hear seven tracks at bandcamp or we’ve got a little player below for the terminally lazy.

It really is all rather magnificent. And to think I claim to be a music journalist.