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The exciting South London group find a space where the industrial meets the technological and the tried and tested meets the experimental. |
How have RIP Magic garnered so much buzz with only three singles? Their highly anticipated debut album is finally here to release the bated breath of London’s indie scene. The four-piece, comprising of Marco Pini (also of Sorry), Felix Bayley-Higgins, Beth Boswell-Knight and Pedro Takahashi, have been garnering attention since the band’s inception. Tyler, the Creator was a conspicuous early fan after catching one of their London DJ sets and singled out their demos as evidence that they’re one to watch. Following a string of sold-out shows and impressive opening slots, including for Fcukers, LCD Soundsystem, and, most recently, Tame Impala, the demand for an RIP Magic to release more substantial than a further single could not be higher. ‘1,2,3’ is set to answer these prayers, delivering a striking, movement-rich record, and proving that the act of finding your feet in your own sound can, in itself, be the sound. |
Opening track ‘Crowd’ lays the groundwork for a record that’s designed to engage through disorientation. All lasers burning and revolving synths, it sounds like being in the studio as a beat finds it footing. Here, reverb is the instrument, and feedback is the medium. The crescendo of manual electronica and muffled percussion surges to a fever-pitch that feels like endless, dark city nights of putting one foot in front of the other. That relentless distortion is equally punchy on ‘Screwdark’, which was released in May of this year, further building the momentum towards ‘1,2,3’. With its brassy opening and 2000s kickback, it upholds the precise balancing of this mostly instrumental record. Where there are lyrics they land almost incomprehensibly, slurred and abstract. Such is true on this single, where an indistinct monologue is cushioned by a fervent record scratch, and a tone like a warped Fontaines D.C. |
In this sense, the album is uninterested in its own genre, and nowhere is this starker than on ‘11:30’, with its soft-padded kick-drum and sharp sampling. The track’s muted buzzy bass feels like play, starting to tease a dizziness that seems increasingly synonymous with RIP Magic’s work. Pini’s role as master of electronics for trip-hop-rock band Sorry is significant here, where his prowess in building an exciting sonic scape speaks for itself. Following this, ‘End Song’ cements comparisons to Gorillaz-era Damon Albarn in its vocals, layered over a youthful hum, and bisected by a ribbon-dancing synth. ‘Put your arms around it, don’t wish it away’, the lyrics urge, pointing to a fragile moment of critical mass. With a party anthemic slow build and false ending, the track is one of the album’s best, establishing a cohesive sound beyond the electro-experimental tease. Its drums feel unprocessed and full – ‘1,2,3’ is hardly a slick record, and that’s one of the best things about it. |
The album ends on one of the singles that first brought RIP Magic the fanfare they’ve gone on to earn. This is the band that brought James Murphy back out into collaboration, with lead track ‘5words’ being the first song he’s produced for another band in more than a decade. You can hear his trademark danceable rock textures finding their home in an entirely new context: a speculative, at times still protean, kinetic sound, that speaks to something homemade yet eminently stadium-ready. It is interestingly placed as a closing track, given it would have been equally striking as the album’s opening attention-grabber. Perhaps this in itself speaks to the strength of the record: Within and between the songs, ‘1,2,3’, is a fractal of itself, a cyclical album that could birth and rebirth itself seemingly infinitely. |
This latest drop in the who’s who of indie up-and-comers secures the dominance of an exploratory electronic sound that’s definitely here to stay. ‘1,2,3’ is a cross-section of a very specific moment in the scene, where genre holds no weight and collaborative music production functions more like cross-pollination. Here, where the industrial meets the technological, the old meets the new, and the tried and tested meets the experimental, is RIP Magic. |
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