Genre: Post Rock / Folk / Dark Pop

01 The Last Engineer
02 England's Always Better (As you're pulling away)
03 Incurable (reprise)
04 Soldier Song
05 The King cannot be Found
06 Great Escapes
07 Cities and Factories
08 Halfway Through
09 Saints preserve us
10 Part-Monster

I'd already hear the latest Piano Magic record a couple of times when I received it to be reviewed in Heathen Harvest, which was a pleasant surprise. Piano Magic is one of those bands that have been combining dark pop, experimental sounds and folk during many years. They sound haunting, like many 4AD artists (they've actually released a record there themselves), distorted and dark like Jesus and Mary Chain or My Bloody Valentine and delicate. Although the main voice of the England based and partially French composed band is masculine, Glen Johnson, they have already been accompanied previously by the rasp and sensual voice of Angèle David-Guillou. They have called themselves 'ghost-rock', yet the influences from dark wave are very obvious. At times, references like Pink Turns Blue or The Chameleons pop up, while at moments they seem lost into a whimsical world of folk. They have also released music on Morr Music (yet they don't go as far into happy pop as many of their other artists) and Important Records. In Spain they are extraordinarily popular; they seem to have connected very well with the indie public that comes from dark 80s guitar-based bands. They have visited most of the large music festivals and have even written the soundtrack for Bigas Luna's 'Son de Mar'.

The problem with bands that are recognized in the alternative scene (well, as big as not being in the mainstream can be) it that many dark guitar sounding lovers will look at them with suspicion. Piano Magic have been active for more than ten years and have released up to seven long plays and various Ep's and maxis. Yet many people than are very willing to listen to 80s pop, or labels that have moved after-punk, death rock or post-rock in all the 'dark' magazines' are oblivious to their existence. That's ok, I guess. They sound much better than most of those bands anyway.

'The last engineer' opens with drum work. The instruments are introduced one by one: the guitar, the piano melody, the voice. They slowly blend. The song is repetitive and clean, the melody mostly falls into the voice line and the responding, mellow piano. Distortion comes in with the instruments when the voice finishes its reciting. Then comes the pleasure of pure music: during three minutes each instrument with its highlight, variations galore and, of course, the thick wall of distortion that becomes painted on the canvas of their first song. In 'England's Always Better (as you're pulling away)' the energy is sucked into silence again, and expulsed slowly yet surely through the voice. The sadly ironic lyrics tumble through Glen's half-talking, half-moaning voice. A guitar is the responsible for the background melody. At the end of each phrase, the female voice underlines it. For the long chorus, a circling melody walks in, through a trumpet and synthesizer - the percussion makes the image of a faltering carousel moving on its broken hinges.

'Incurable (reprise)' belongs to the female voice. A catchy bass and drum line construct a brooding pop song, full of dark images that develop with a exceptional candor. The chorus picks up many of the other instruments and doesn't forget its distortion. All in all, it is a compact, excellent, dark rock song. Think of Chameleons, Smiths, JAMC with a raspy female voice blended together into Piano Magic. 'Soldier Song' keeps Angèle's voice and is purely folk. Dreamy and languish, the voice carries the easy melody wrapped by a double chord line and subtle percussion. The instrumentation is frail and full of beauty.

Pianomagic push another rock song with 'The King cannot be Found'. The bass line combined with the screechy guitar and the heavy accompanied synth are so purely dark rock somebody could actually told me it had been made in 1991 and I would believed them. Powerful, coherent and good. 'Great Escapes' already opens with a complex bass/drum line and high-pitched guitars - it transforms into an orgy of music, where the sounds develop, evolve and return, in a wave-like manner. Clearness comes with 'Cities and Factories' with the voice and guitar opening. Yet in the next compass many more instruments are introduced. It carries a slow-paced tempo, soaked in a dark crooning feeling. 'Halfway Through' brings back a compact energy with an 80s feel, a slightly out-of-synch singing brings Morrisey to mind, yet the song is, for good and bad, much more complex than his original band's. The long, distorted guitar notes remind me personally of a 'Songs of Faith and Devotion' DM sound. - Might be my imagination, though. The trumpet use has reminisces of Tindersticks. So, imagine how richly detailed this song is.

A blast of energy marks 'Saints preserve us', where the contrast between piano, savage guitars and dense bass is exceptional. It is sort of like a battle between voice and instruments. As soon as one takes over, the other gives it a couple of compasses and then takes over. The pace is full of trepidation. To close, 'Part-Monster' is dedicated to Joseph Carey Merrick (The Elephant Man) - a slow song, clean and sad: "Though I stare into the mirror, it does not tell me how I look". Perhaps not all the songs are classics, but they have enough quality to overthrow numerous other bands if you want to compare. Perhaps 'Part Monster' is not Piano Magic's best record, but it holds many jewels if you want to prove its worth. So just listen to it a couple of times - purchase it if you enjoy it. I don't doubt many of you will.