4 or 5 Magicians - The 2nd Or 3rd EP (Vertigo)
4/5
By: Alex Lee Thomson
This EP, more of a demo than a finished release, is a welcomed recording for the Brighton based dogsbody's lethal fanbase who have been hankering for something nice and shiny to hold onto since the band's initial online success last year. What it seems like they're aiming for is a kind of modern British sound crossed with a late Pixies-like resonance, but what this actually sounds like is a more morose alt-grunge version of The Cribs, even more exposed and sadistic. The guitars prevail it with a climbing, if not repetitive, riff that soars nicely into a climate changing chorus and Stellastarr*-bleached medley of rumbling drums and minimal vocals that talk out urban poetry that make a mockery of the very fundamentals of singing in the best of ways.
There's an incredible Happy Mondays like anarchy and p**s-take value to this EP which leaves you with the continual belief that this band is cool, really cool, and everybody should know it. The songs are interesting in the purest sense, torturing spartanly bleak verses into mashing choruses that crash with hostile plucking around them until you cant take any more, awaiting a sudden unleash of yet more inherently fantastic outbursts. At times this could be a lost REM demo from pre-'Document' time, at others it fits nicely into today's scene all too well, but continuously it raises the bar for new bands wanting to try and take on music similar to Smashing Pumpkins in the year of their return, and in the year that finally remembers the proper grunge pioneers - before Cobain threw himself into an amp.
Stream three tracks from 'The 2nd or 3rd EP' HERE.
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