Sometimes I hear something, and it is so perfectly put together that it either inspires me or stops me in my tracks. Bleak Magician does both.
Their latest release, “No Fireball Show” has everything I love. Well thought out and positioned instrumentation, Crisp recordings that let the music and songs breathe, delivery and a vocal that sits somewhere between Stiv Bator and Dr John.
Musically it drives a line between Sparklehorse and Nick Cave. Songs come and go as they should. They live for as long as they need to, sometimes struggling for air, sometimes breathing fire. It takes a strong musical sense to know when to stop, even if the idea could be stretched, that though, is the beauty of Bleak Magician, they have an innate sense of what is right.
Music like this for me is hard to define genre wise because it lives in a world where I believe that this should be the mainstream. It’s outsider music I suppose, it lives and dies on it’s own terms, when it’s chest is puffed out it’s ready to breathe napalm.
There’s a lofi quality to the recording that’s almost an effect. It sounds epic in places. The simple but totally memorable guitar parts, the broken keyboards and sparse drums interweave so magically you can easily drift off into the stories being told. No fat on a turkey they say. Yeah well. So it goes here. There’s emotional weight that is underpinned by the watery keys and distorted atonal guitars. It plays with de-tuned/out of tune instruments, to add more a more broken feeling and it works.
It works very well indeed.
I totally recommend this album. Have a listen, buy it. Tell them you liked it. Fuck it, tell us you liked it.
If you’re only bluesy you can find singer Srogi Mroczek here @srogimroczek.bsky.social
“No Fireball Show” is an album that just makes sense on every level. According to the description, it’s supposed to sound how memories feel and everything about it works overtime to drive that point home. The sound is warm, fuzzy and full of texture with long, held notes that are allowed to ring out.
The tracks are very short and seem to end before they really get going. Srogi’s vocals have a gritty, almost broken quality to them, making them feel older, nostalgic and This is an easy album to recommend. The storytelling, the attention to detail, the thoughtfulness behind every element of the songs and the emotions transported through them, make this into an experience that I’ll gladly return to. And I hope others will feel the same way.whimsical.
Even the order of tracks reinforces the idea of memories; starting with happy, energetic songs before transitioning into slower, almost melancholic ones. It’s these interconnected parts that tell a story, even before the listener pays attention to the lyrics; a sign of care that’s simply engaging in it’s own right.
Previously….
The Nirvana Fallacy (or, Mania and Her Sophomore Slump) – Saint Louie
- Bleak Magician – No Fireball Show
- I Am Legend: A Soundtrack by Eoin Mac Ionmhain
- They’re Everywhere by Jim’s Big Ego
- Smile, We’re All Gonna Die by The Cancellations
- Void by Vanessa Funke
- Rides Out by Hot Donkey #FeatureFriday
- #Feature Friday – Trauma Stew by Cynful Ukes
- Quartered: Songs of Palimpsest by S. J. Tucker
- Shapeshifer by Oblee #FeatureFriday
- Rayguns of Love by The Striped Bananas
- Mean Bone by Buzzard
- Aldona’s Daughter by Stunt Lover
- #FeatureFriday -Bandcamp Friday Issue
- #FeatureFriday – 1991 by Maisie Marra
- “Muay Thai Bag” by Foxcall
- A Place To Go When You Need To Hide by Rose Alaimo
- #FeatureFriday – And the Bones by Dr. Organ
- #FeatureFriday WIENER DEMEANOR by Cheer Captain
- #FeatureFriday – Effusion by Sweet Freeze
- Beginings Revisted by Jim France