Magdalena Bay's LP Mercurial World starts with a conclusion and ends with a "Start," and because I think they're on to something, I'm going to do the same. It is unquestionable in my mind that Mercurial World is an excellent album. It is a release that I think any fans of electronic music and underground pop can find something to love about.
Especially in a world where a band like Yes can go from "Roundabout" to "Owner of a Lonely Heart," Magdalena Bay's aptitude for catchy sound concepts would seem to almost be a forgone conclusion- only Magdalena Bay has embraced this potential in themselves faster than most of their predecessors (and contemporaries). It's not surprising how confidently Magdalena Bay guides the listener through the complex rhythms and expansive melodies of Mercurial World and how unshy they are about their prog-rock background- in fact, I believe it is this past that allows them to fully realize the visions that emerge from the fog of their imagination.
The firm patter and charismatic themes of the piano lead on "Hysterical Us" gives you a taste of how soft rock and space disco can interlock to find common footing on a cosmic cruise of quasar-chasing discovery. "Chaeri" slowly comes to life through progressive builds that mature before your eyes like a time-elapsed video of a dayglow-hued orchid in bloom, unfurling faster than you'd expect, but not without the excellent courtesy to permit you the opportunity to appreciate each peddles as it extends outward in emancipation of its verdant form. A halo of chiptune nirvana descends around the downy but angular, breath-play of the player-v-player dialogue of action that evolves over the course of "You Lose!"
In between its shimmering bookends, there is a deep realm of groove and posh, pliant experimentation to wonder, with the sounds of lysergic-oiled synths and the blended textural melodies of Mica's voice as your guide. The final track, "The Begining," leaves you with the impression that the party is just about to get started, with a crowd noises introducing swift, soft-shoeing house piano sections, energizing dance-floor-tile chipping heel-beats, and a grappling wave of synth rolls that sweep you into the mix like the space between you and the band had simply been highlighted and deleted with a superficial keystroke.
Later tracks compliment their predecessors in a way that doesn't so much build on past motifs, but rather show how each song acts in anticipation of the needs and constituent parts of its siblings. Mercurial World begins with "The End" which ushers you into the duo's world of liquid daydreams and absorbing fugue-embedded investigations into the domain of the subconscious and uninhibited mind. The structures they've adopted allow the album to feel like it is operating on a non-linear spectrum, where narratives course in intersecting conflicts in simultaneous space-time and it's up to the listener to piece them back into an order that doesn't fry their brain.
They are blazing their own path and it's not hard to see why they've been getting so much love following the release of their latest LP, Mercurial World. Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin's Madalena Bay is part electronic pop project and part mythical stage from where the quizzical pair unleash their antics upon a greying world through impossibly catchy manifestations of diversionary creation and keen, body-moving, sonic inquiry.
