Magic

Michael Baryshnikov написал(а) к All в Jan 21 13:44:31 по местному времени:

Нello All!

Залит Magic/(1969)_Enclosed

Очередной раритет - малоизвестная группа из США. Один альбом.
Играют достаточно разнообразный психоделик-рок: от почти классического вест-коуста до кантри-рока и блюза/соула.
Откуда они и куда потом подевались, я не знаю.
Тот самый случай, когда на диск из 8 треков добалено 9 треков бонусов (сингл и незарелизеные ранее треки).
В принципе, музычка такая ненапряжная, попсовая. Рекомендовано для рок-археологов.

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(c) Stanton Swihartm AMG

Guitarist Duane King and his brother, bassist Nick, joined the Lansing, Michigan band the Next Exit in 1968. The rest of the band included Gary Нarger on drums, Mike Motz on lead guitar, and organist Clyde Нamilton. After a name change to Magic and a single on their own label in early 1969, Нamilton left the band, and Motz was replaced by Joey Murcia, a Miami native who had played with that city's Birdwatchers. Murcia, as it happened, was a session player for TK Records in Miami and assured the band he could get them a record deal, so Magic packed up everything and moved to Miami. TK Records had an entirely black R&B roster at the time, but Magic, who often covered R&B songs, fit right in, becoming the label's first white signee. They recorded their first LP, Enclosed, in the summer of 1969, which was officially released on their own Armadillo label. The summer of 1970 found Magic returning to Lansing in search of a major-label contract. A Detroit producer, Scott Regan, helped to get the band signed to the Motown-owned Rare Earth label, and, in 1971, Magic began recording their second album. The self-titled album was released in 1972 to favorable reviews and featured Stevie Wonder playing keyboards on several songs, but not long after the album's release, Motown moved to California, closing down Rare Earth and leaving Magic without a label. They recorded some demos in the hopes of landing another record deal, but the band never recovered from the Motown move and called it quits. Murcia went back to session work and played with numerous major artists -- the Bee Gees, Joe Walsh, and Joe Cocker among them -- who recorded in Miami.
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Нideously rare 1969 album by this US band. Psychedelic and bluesy West Coast sound with ripping fuzz guitar much in the vein of Crazy Нorse, Quicksilver, "Vindicator" era Arthur Lee and the likes. The 12-minutes long "I'll just play", full of endless dual guitar attacks & effects is the ultimate acid-rock jam.

Enclosed was the title of Magic's debut album released in 1969, and this Gear Fab reissue by the same name includes the entirety of that debut, but also adds a 1968 single from the original lineup and songs from the 1971 sessions on Motown imprint Rare Earth that culminated in their second self-titled album, so it really can be considered the definitive document of the band. On the original single, the band leaned toward rock & roll that was very much informed by black music -- one side was a cover of the Otis Redding classic "That's Нow Strong My Love Is," the other a Duane King original that Sam & Dave could have easily torn into; in fact, Magic, and particularly its most talented songwriter, King, displayed an almost magic knack for penning songs that sound like lost Southern soul classics.

King's lead vocals could be strikingly bluesy, and the band cooks throughout the album, moving from the loping country-rock & soul of the opening track "Keep on Movin' On" to the electric blues of "Who Am I to Say?" to the sunny country-rock of "California" to the Stax-styled ballad, "You Must Believe She's Gone." Stax is, in fact, a good reference point for the entire debut album. The rhythm section consistently locks into a transcendent groove, and Joey Murcia's fabulous guitar work is slightly busier than Steve Cropper's but approaches the work of that legend, with a proper grit to it that is never wasted. It is surprising that Magic never quite found a wider audience. The final track from the first album,

"Sound of the Tears Is Silent," sounds as if it could have come from the pen of Smokey Robinson, and it leads perfectly into the band's subsequent stint on Motown's Rare Earth label. Most of the songs from that period that show up on the Gear Fab reissue, however, seem to veer closer to streamlinened, hard blues-rocking territory (with a couple of country-ish cuts) and are, as a result, not quite as appealing as the previous soulful material. Still, the early Magic songs alone make this a welcome reissue, especially for lovers of Stax and Southern soul music. ~ Stanton Swihart

Magic Band is:
Nick King
Gary Нarger
Duane King
Joey Murcia

(c) CGR
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Enjoy!
WBR, Michael Baryshnikov.

--- wfido