Magic Wands - Switch (2023)

It's time for already the sixth album in the California-based band's discography and I have to say, Magic Wands are one of the lesser known dreamy artists whom I find the most consistently good with what they do. As it is the case with this year's Switch.

Their dream pop feels like hot chocolate: it's beautiful but not high-paced, it's atmospheric but melodic, it's dark. I can feel notes of wave and post-punk here (especially thanks to the clear bass line backgrounds), but the whole thing is more dreamy and hazy than cold and minimalist. It's great pop music with this gloomier hint and ethereal mood all over it. The balance between all the ingredients is pretty good here and it's one of the reasons I find the band so good since 2018's Abrakadabra (and I need to check out the previous albums as well). For hardcore fans, the Bandcamp version of the album includes remixes that make the release virtually twice as long. 

Switch costs 10.99 USD.

Magic Wands - Illuminate (2020)

Magic Wands - Abrakadabra (2018)

Check: Switch

Country: California, US

Genre: wave-esque dream pop

Label: Metropolis Records

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Magic Wands - Illuminate (2020)

The Californian Magic Wands released their debut album almost a decade ago, now it's time for a new release with Illuminate's catchy, dreamy and somewhat cold tunes showed to the world at the end of the last year.

Their blend of the indie pop's liveliness, the post-punk's vibes in the backgrounds and the dreampopish atmosphere appeared already on my blog three years ago with their third album Abrakadabra. With the new album, the artists keep digging into the very catchy and ethereal way of creating music, basing them on synth-minimal and coldwave-like flat backgrounds. It makes it sooo easy to be attracted towards this atmosphere of the futuristically magical dance trances from the 80's (hey, no wonder they wear those space-like glasses). 

Some of the songs here stay with the listener longer, I'm mostly thinking about Honeymoon and my favourite Queen of the Gypsies with its heavy ethereal mood combined with the magical, or perhaps even mythological, theme of the Roma people. Illuminate makes a light and catchy work for sad people who want to dance.

Illuminate costs 11.11 USD.

Magic Wands - Abrakadabra (2018)

Check: Queen of the Gypsies

Country: California, US

Genre: dreamy synthpop

Label: Majestic 7

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Magic Wands - Abrakadabra (2018) EN

A week without some Californian shoegaze is a week wasted, this time the magic is shared by Magic Wands lead by the couple Chris and Dexy Valentine. Everything here revolves around magic, from the name of the project and the album's title to tracks, especially, obviously, "Houdinim". And what music genre fits magic better than dense shoegaze?

Shoegaze as seen by the Californians combines the delicate but also very feminine vocal by Dexy with reappearing quite often, although without claiming the whole music spectre, very loud guitars and characteristic noise My Bloody Valentine style. This, together with the fact that they are brilliant when it comes to writing catchy tunes and somewhat smuggling some occultist ambiance covered by the catchiness, makes the album a successful and hot combination.

"Abrakadabra" costs 9.99 USD.

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Magic Wands - Abrakadabra (2018) PL

Tydzień bez kalifornijskiego shoegaze'u to tydzień stracony, tym razem swoją magią podzielili się dowodzone przez Chrisa i Dexy Valentine Magic Wands. Wszystko tutaj odnosi się do magii właśnie - od nazwy projektu, tytułu płyty po poszczególne utwory z, naturalnie, "Houdinim" na czele. A jaka muzyka pasuje lepiej do magii niż gęsty shoegaze?

Ten w wykonaniu Kalifornijczyków łączy ze sobą łagodny ale również bardzo dziewczęcy wokal Dexy z pojawiającymi się często, choć niezawłaszczającymi, głośnymi gitarami i charakterystycznym noisem a'la My Bloody Valentine.  To, w połączeniu z umiejętnością pisania chwytających i przebojowych piosenek, a także przemycany niejako pod spodem okultystyczny klimat jest mieszanką gwarantującą sukces.

"Abrakadabra" kosztuje 37 złotych (9,99 USD).

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