Young Magic: Melt - Album Review

Young Magic
Melt
Rating: Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It

The art/world-rock trio Young Magic recorded their debut album Melt in over 10 different cities, including Rio De Janeiro, London, Antwerp, Rome, Berlin, and Mexico City. Although this sounds like a recipe for a mess of in congruent styles bashing into one another, Melt actually is tighter focused than that, acting as a sponge, absorbing the different sounds and flavors into a strikingly coherent package. Melt is also an apt title for the record, as the sonic structures feel liquidy, diffuse, and shimmering, as if the recordings are disintegrating upon each listen. Within the record you find allusions to shoegaze, Animal Collective's synthrock hybrid, the worldbeat textures of Yeahsayer, and countless other influences from their worldwide travels. It is a dense, clattering mixture of sounds that can be overwhelming at times, aimless and unstructured, but also intensely hypnotic, beautiful, and intoxicating.

The tracks on Melt are built upon layer after layer of intricate sound, and when put together just so the results can frequently be dazzling. Tracks like opener "Sparkly" layer guitars over multitracked vocals, lush synths, and interesting combinations of percussion. In this case, what sounds like milk pails being struck, and shuffling, stomping boots on dirt. Each layer working seamlessly with the other, no one element overshadowing the next.



"Slip Time" finds the band merging burbling/buzzing electronics, twisted and manipulated samples, with mantra-like vocals and a Brainfeeder style beatscape.



And on standout track "You With Air," the dense melange of bouncy, buzzy, and Middle Eastern sounding synths bumps into and around with thumping beats, hip-hop style vocals, and a crowded background of samples. The finale of the song is a brilliant master class in how to have what seem to be a million balls in the air stay in movement without a crash.



Their indebtedness to Animal Collective comes out with the gorgeous lushness of "Night On The Ocean." Soaring waves of synths crash and moan over a booming bed of drum programming, with the intertwined vocalists darting in and out of the hazy mix.



"The Dancer," swirls and mesmerizes with its intricate play of sputtering percussion, heavily reverbed vocals, and samples.



But they also find time to calm things down, like on the meditative lullaby of "Drawing Down the Moon," whose calm is only hurried along over a shuffling beat pattern.



The complaints I have with the album are that there are far too many instrumental, interstitial tracks like "Yalam," "Calvary," and "Watch For Our Lights," that, while sonically interesting, don't add much to the overall album. Had the tracks been utilized as signposts for when a different style of track was approaching, it might have made some sense, instead they act more as speed bumps, taking you out of the flow of the record. And some tracks, like "Jam Karat," get a little too fussy for its own good.

It has been commented that Melt's sound is a little too similar to bands like Yeahsayer and other bands that use a more world-music based template. The comments are valid to a point, as while the bands use a similar starting point, I think it is safe to say Young Magic put their own unique spin on things. Melt is a gorgeous album of dense, hypnotic tracks that will beguile and transfix you.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and peaks one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.