4 or 5 Magicians - Bardens Boudoir, London - 8/6/07
4/5
By: Alex Lee Thomson
When you hear 4 Or 5 Magicians debut, demo-like offering, you can hear potential. Potential, but not a band ready for the nation. When you stand waiting for 4 Or 5 Magicians to go onstage, their mismatch of styles and general slipshod appearance is outwardly encouraging, but not confident, and as they apologise for not having time to sound check; you're really not expecting much. You're there because you heard something on their debut EP that for some unfathomable reason drew you in, and you're hoping that it's not going to be too much of a let down. You've entrusted them with the same sense of conviction you bestow any new band with in the hope they'll go onto really inspire you and remain lodged in your heart for as long as possible, and God willing will do the same for everybody else in the country - but it didn't seem like a probable outcome from this Brighton assembly... until 25 seconds later that is.
Moments into 'Forever On The Edge' you're gobsmacked, bewildered and wondering how any band can jolt you this much. They sound like nothing else in the country, a crosswire between British Sea Power, The Cribs and Happy Mondays, and when every member jumps into the air to signify the start of a rebellious set and this incomprehensible song, you're addicted, under their command and daring not to blink lest you miss one second of the performance. Lead singer Dan wraps his body around his guitar to deliver the verbal student-life manifesto that breaches the wryly celebrated lines, "always scraping by, Tesco value 'til I die" while string and drum seem to have sex right there on stage in front of you creating the mammoth roll of melody that accompanies each stroke of the chorus. You're almost unaware of the wit this track sustains and its attack on the apparent structure of modern bands, and their initiation into the industry, joking about getting A&R men drunk and the like. This wit is matched only by the complexity of the music that escorts it, a positive ramble of instruments that look so fragile they could fall apart at any second but stay together, pouring and uncompromisingly lashing the intricacies of the song into the open.
It still all seems rather unrehearsed, but with all that adding to the veracity and charm of the gig. The uncompromising sincerity of the band felt right through with Dan breaking to occasionally apologise for any sound faults, the constant perfectionism something of an enchanting appeal, but their intermittent self-deprecation faintly off-putting. Each escaping song of their short-lived set is animatedly arresting, both musically and visually motivating as the previous clank of unconformity turns into a stumbling whip of oomph and authoritative recklessness, limbs flailing hysterically to assert the dimensional coerce of their music's unconstraint. You can already hear the thunderous applause of headline festival slots and pages of musical press literature being fumbled with passion, leading to an upward projection of overwhelmed kids mystified by the post-Arctic Monkey holocaust.
4 Or 5 Magicians might need to fine-tune elements of their work, but it's all teetering on the edge of being truly important to the future soundtrack of the UK music scene with only a handful of limitations standing between them and a Gonzo special. Watch this space.
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