Another Form of Relief

It’s not very often that I get genuinely excited about an unsigned British band. In fact, since I started this blog back in february, only Sky Larkin have managed to evoke that kind of interest from me. Today though, I’m going to introduce you to another in the form of Brighton’s 4 or 5 Magicians.

4 or 5 Magicians are a four piece, led by Dan Ormsby, who did pretty much everything on their recorded songs, and takes charge of vocals and guitar duty when the band play live. The most obvious thing in Ormsby is that he has based his style on an influence not often seen in British bands: Stephen Malkmus. Not that Ormsby makes any apologies for this, an entry on the bands Myspace blog detailing the records that shaped their sound proclaims:

“Not only have I basically based my whole onstage performance around him, his style of piecing songs together has also been entirely theived. Without hearing the way Malkmus twists simple chord based songs into jerky pop masterpieces, my songs would probably sound like a bad Oasis. As it is they sound like a bad Pavement, which I am infinitely happier with.”

I couldn’t agree more with any of this. I’ll take a bad Pavement over a bad Oasis any day. Hell, I’d take a bad Pavement over a good Oasis for that matter. The important part here though is that 4 or 5 Magicians don’t sound like a bad Pavement. Sure, there are a lot of similarities in their sound, from Ormsby’s swaggering vocals to the jumps in structure during each song, even to the sound of the guitars on ‘Forever On The Edge’. Bad isn’t a word I would associate though. Even when you take these elements away, the songs themselves are far better than they have any right to be.

‘Forever On The Edge’ has “slacker anthem” written all over it. A brash, honest song about wasting one’s life and almost depending on becoming famous to be successful (”I’m wasting my time in this band / Pinning all my hopes on getting signed / Well it could happen / Some idiot might sign us”). It’s this kind of witty, self-aware writing that first drew me to the band, and that they have the sound to back it up is even better.

Now I should probably point out that quality on these recordings isn’t entirely perfect, mostly because the vocal is a little quiet in comparison to the instrumentation. Both of these songs are still incredibly good though, and with a little tweaking of the aforementioned vocal volume, would be among the best that I have heard this year from any band. The talent is certainly here for that.

You’ll be able to catch 4 or 5 Magicians at a couple of upcoming shows in London (details below), which you should certainly get yourselves down to. That way, when they become popular, you can be one of the cool kids who was there first.

MP3 4 or 5 Magicians - Forever On The Edge (expired)
MP3 4 or 5 Magicians - Tour De Force (expired)

Upcoming gigs:
Thursday 10 August - Nambucca, London (w/ Wojtek Godzisz)
Saturday 16 September - 93 Feet East, London (w/ a ton of other bands, Smalltown American all dayer)

4 or 5 Magicians: Myspace

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