Sunburned Hand of the Man - No Magic Man (Bastet)

Whatever I said in the post below; forget it. This record seems to take place on a different planet anyway, or at least on a place on this earth where hardly any sunlight comes through. The flora and fauna there hasn't even been discovered. It's dark and foggy, swamps infested with algae bubble under the hazy shine of the moon. This, is where No Magic Man celebrates it's land, reigns and eventually unleashes it's tentacles around a number of crazed enthusiastics who are willing to be carried away by it's moans and groans (me, some other guy and a few others perhaps).

The no magic man opens up the gates to his realm with lost ghosts chanting over his shoulder. The intro, 'Every Direction' is the unfolding of his kingdom. "[...]I open the eyes of all / that they might see / my right eye is the day / my left eye is the night".
Than no magic man's tribe start it's hedonistic rituals with 'The 1st Degree'. While peaceful at first, the flutes and organdrones soon enough initiate an atmosphere that most people would run away from instantly. Menacing percussion shakes the earth and human screams dissapear into the depths of, dunno, something very deep. No, even deeper than that, deeper, still deeper. Okay, you're getting there now.

Everything is somewhat held together by the rough lines of buzzing krautrockstructures. Around this fluid core effects twirl around, men speak of vague matters and cymbals crash in the distance. The monotone voice that makes up almost everything of 'The Air Itself' creates a trancelike state, expecting a never ocurring breakdown in chaos everytime a sentence ends. Instead the voice of the speaking man seems to hold down anything chaotic about to happen. It's only an interlude, a plus six minute interlude to the centerpiece, the core of this hidden world. The titletrack. 'No Magic Man' never speeds up or breaks down, a constant pace is kept, the only sound interfearing is that of clatter of various origin and the occasional appearing of underworldly sounding and deformed vocal samples. All these elements combined make for a very exciting listen, you get thrown in the middle of shamanistic rituals in a circle of painted faces jumping up and down.

It's the recognizable flute drone that is present throughout No Magic Man that makes this release far more appealing than previous efforts. There actually is a structure (mostly in the spiralling flutesound) of some sort, a guidinglight for the listener to unconsciously focus on. A looping guitarmelody messes with everything that seems chaotic in being the opposite, refined and ever present. On top, the clatter of hitting on pots and pans give the whole a chaotic semi-improvised vibe. And then it ends, it ends for a a stretched minute with a serene but disturbing female voice eventually transforming into a voice of the counter sex. It messes with your head without you even realizing it. Again, it's an intro, this time to the most dark and organic piece of the album, 'Yer Own Eyes and the Number One'. A rough guitarmelody again takes care of the structural pace, voices scream bewildered on top while a gong, cymbals and other folk-inspired instruments colour the track with heavy psychedelic paint. It's No Magic Man at it's most intense, unpredictable, getting deeper and deeper in a trancelike state while horrific trumpetsounds frolic in the background. As if possessed, until 'Nile High' quietly comes in with its peaceful ending, the gates are closing. The no magic man gave you a peek and left you craving for more.

No Magic Man is one of the defining albums of the spiritual psychedelia known to Wire readers as the new weird america. If ever, music was made to satisfy the Gods, this is not it. This isn't music for the devil either, these are the sounds Darwin must have heard while writing The Origin of Species. Earth coming to life, feeling it's breath whilst being mystified forevermore. When I'm intrigued, I'm living.