Artist: Re123+
Title: Magi
Type: Album
Label: BadMoodMan Music

Drone. Well, it’s called that for a reason and unsurprisingly on the few occasions when I have played the likes of Sunn0))) in the presence of company it’s been met with derision and comments like ‘it’s just droning on…’ Uh…that’s the point! Well, let me tell you Magi isn’t exactly fast-paced stuff. As things are at last starting to take off with the haste (or lack thereof) of a 747 during a passing volcanic ash cloud, it occurs to me that I’ve been listening for almost a whole 6 minutes. We have lift off…please fasten your seatbelts, only another 45 minutes till we reach your destination. And with all this reverb, we’re in for a bumpy ride.

For a while, a post-rock guitar sound is introduced and over four minutes of repetition it has something of a hypnotic effect while it lasts… though it soon rumbles to a finish taking you down with an unexpected crash. Guitars noisily hiss and fuzz out rising and falling in volume and before we know it the hallucinations come to the fore and it’s a meditative humming, rich in its tone and rather calming and as it is replaced by one syllable words droning out it gradually rises in volume. The languor of the vocal delivery is rather sleep inducing while majestic is another word that springs to mind. As one comes to I find oneself in the midst of ‘Three in a Desert’ and feeling rather spaced out, struggling against consciousness in the heat. There’s an African drum beat low in the mix keeping things moving at a steady pace, as a wavering layer of fuzz sweeps the landscape. It’s all quite visual, and to read the post-modern excerpts from Umberto Eco’s The Island Of The Day Before may help understand what it’s all about. Just replace the plane metaphor for a deserted ship previously carrying plague victims…and a man discovering an island and dreaming of his shipwreck. It’s rather abstract and open to different interpretations and probably someone more versed in literature than I can make more sense of it.

Magi is certainly an interesting listen, if nothing else. It’s not one I could personally listen to very often; truth be told I can’t imagine it will be played again this year but for fans of Earth and Sunn0))) this is recommended.

http://solitude-prod.com/blog/2010/03/bmm-031-10-re123-magi/

Luci Herbert

MTUK HOME