SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: MAGIC WANDS – CASCADES

MAGIC WANDS
CASCADES
METROPOLIS RECORDS

In the 1983 erotic horror film The Hunger, Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie play vampires who scout goth clubs for young victims they can take home and devour. The opening scene very memorably features the Bauhaus classic “Bela Lugosi’s Dead,” but any track off Magic Wands’ latest album Cascades would fit just as well.

Arriving just in time for Halloween, this moody, atmospheric album feels perfect for that time of year when the weather cools off, the nights get darker, and one’s insatiable sense of longing sets in. Featuring Dexy Valentine on guitar, synth and vocals, and Chris Valentine on guitar and vocals, the band describes their music as a mixture of dark pop, post-punk, goth, and shoegaze. Active since 2008, the pair met online while living on opposite sides of the U.S. (Dexy in Los Angeles, Chris in Nashville) and decided to start a band together, as they were both interested in exploring themes of mysticism and the supernatural in music.

The duo’s ’80s influences are certainly heard here, and right from the opening track, the album feels faithful to both the sound and mood of the gloomy late Cold War era. “Across the Water” features energetic synths that uplift Chris’s saturnine vocals, creating a gloomy vibe that seems to echo the darkness of both the season and our current societal climate.

The band is also clearly influenced by classic literature, with references to E.M. Forster’s A Room With a View and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (“Albatross.”)  While “A Room With a View” feels both seductive and mysterious, “Albatross” is a dark, propulsive song with heavily layered synth and reverb that create an interestingly suffocating vibe.

“Time To Dream,” a bittersweet track about fantasizing about a better world, is another standout.

The closing song, “Riverbed,” while moody, is slightly less intense than the rest of the tracks and feels like a mourning song of sorts. It ends on an uncertain note, adding to the dark and mysterious tone of the whole album.

Cascades is sure to please long-time fans of Magic Wands and will likely earn the band some new fans too. For maximum effectiveness, listen to it at dusk with a single candle lit.

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