Monday, April 23, 2007

Soateramic Sounds...


Magoo - Expansion Ride

Magoo - We're Not Superhuman

Magoo - The Starter's Gun

You know when you find a band and fall in love with them, but for some reason a few years later you get a little sidetracked and stop buying their records, you're not sure why, and in fact you don't even notice, they somehow just drop off your radar, and years later a random conversation (or in this case a comment left here on SVC, love and thanks to Simon J) will get you running off to your collection and wondering what the hell happened to them, then you play catch up and get all the releases since you last bought something by them, and then wonder why the hell you ever stopped loving them...

Well this just happened with me and Magoo.

I first became aware of them in 1997 when I heard the single 'A to Z and Back Again' which just had me hooked from the very first verse.
They were compared to Guided by Voices, The Flaming Lips, Pavement and Stereolab amongst others...
Basically they were influenced by my record collection, well not mine specifically, but I did get the feeling they were creeping into my house and rifling through my records when I wasn't in.
But all the afore mentioned influences were just that, influences.
They were their own band making their own sound, and what a bloody sound it was.
When the first album 'The Soateramic Sounds of Magoo' was released I plonked it in the cd player and sat back...
The opening track was 'The Starter's Gun'... Jesus Christ.
That was a main staple of my DJ set for a good few years after too, the moment at was 1:34 was always a very special moment for me as it used to instantly vaporise anybody even vaguely near the dance floor.

I've been really struggling to pick tracks to post here, could have picked so so many but decided to go for these three.
'Expansion Ride' is taken from their most recent album 'The All Electric Amusement Arcade' which was released in 2006.
'We're Not Superhuman' is taken from 2005's 'Popsongs' album.
And 'The Starter's Gun' is taken from the aforementioned debut album 'The Soateramic Sounds of Magoo' released in 1997.

Listening to the most recent albums for the first time over the last week something struck me...
They've got better.
Better songwriting, better sounding, better all round.
As time has progressed the band have weeded out the self indulgent ramblings that were all over the first couple of releases, I'm not saying that those tracks were rubbish, far from it, it's one of the reasons I fell in love with them.
But as time has gone on they seem to have focused their combined efforts on creating just the wonderful songs that fill the newer albums.
They might have a bit of a marginally smoother sound nowadays and there might be a few more processed sounds on them, but my god they still know how to make a glorious racket.

How often do you re-visit a band after 6 or 7 years and find that they've just got even better.
This makes me very happy indeed.

Buy - Magoo - The All Electric Amusement Arcade
Buy - Magoo - Popsongs
Buy - Magoo - The Soateramic Sounds of...
Visit - Magoo

Simon
x

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