Magic Castles are back with a set of lush psych-rock reveries. Newly signed to Fuzz Club, their new album Realized takes Magic Castles’ music to a newfound level of clarity, whilst still retaining that same, long-harboured analogue warmth only made possible through an array of vintage amps, guitars and transistor organs.
Magic Castles was formed in the early 2000s by multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Jason Edmonds. Their debut album Lore of Mysticore caught the ear of Anton Newcombe of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, culminating in four albums released on Newcombe’s label ‘A’ Recordings Ltd over 2012-22 – including, most recently, 2021’s Sun Reign (a song from which would feature on an episode of the hit HBO series Succession). After a headline tour of Europe in 2023, Jason returned to Minneapolis and steadily finished piecing together the band’s fifth-full length.
Edmonds and the rest of the current Magic Castles line-up (consisting of Adam Patterson on drums, Izaak Drew on guitar and Kristof Marden on bass) recorded the tracks with Nick Tveitbakk at the legendary Pachyderm Studios in Minnesota, with additional recording by Edmonds at his studio the Map Room and in Neil Weir’s remote chapel-converted-to-studio, Blue Bell Knoll, where Edmonds and Weir would loving co-mix the end result.
The album consists of nine dreamlike, melody-led trips that unfold in waves. Opening tracks ‘Hey Alright’ and ‘Abandoned Mansions’ are the perfect scene setters; layered arrangements which invoke the best of psychedelia floating in a dreamlike haze. The ethereal vocals invoke the halcyon days of summer innocence. ‘Samata’ brings crisper notes, a moment of clarity, the fog clearing to reveal a message inside before ‘Mary Anne’ sends you down the rabbit hole once more. ‘Space Manual’ could be a psychonaut’s guide to the galaxy and ‘Got Me Waiting’ has a healthy dose of hazy nostalgia wrapped in whimsical guitar melodies. ‘Summertime Fingertips’ needs to be listened through earphones, in a park, in the sun, at high volume while ‘Don’t Go’ is more suited to a slow walk through the waves and title track ‘Realized’ is a way to ensure these tunes stay in your mind, with its moody countenance and earworm that leaves you humming it long after its gone.
Realized might be the perfect summer album to exist in psychedelia.
