CMJ 2012 Issue! - The Deli

Young Magic
NYC’s Wizards from Oz
By Dave Cromwell / Photo by Kaia Willow
The Deli’s CMJ Shows ’12
Jingling bells on sticks, rattling chains,
single struck congas and thundering
toms all share significant time in the
mix. Interlocking guitar patterns gently
move through progressions as dominant layers
of percussion rise to the forefront. With
the release of their debut album Melt this
past February, New York-based trio Young
Magic has staked a serious claim on the ever
evolving psychedelic dream-pop landscape.
Isaac Emmanuel and Michael Italia began playing together
in their native Australia back in 2007. The duo first met
Indonesian-born Melati Malay in 2009, but didn’t start
working together until last year. Michael explains, “We had
just finished recording a bunch of songs for an album but
we never put it out. I remember having this huge drive to
be making music, but I couldn’t find anyone to collaborate
with in Melbourne. I kind of grew a little tired of trying to
form bands and get everyone in one place. So I bought a
Macbook and set up a little studio and just started making
beats and experimenting with sounds in my bedroom.
Isaac was doing the same thing, and actually started the
Young Magic name at that time. Isaac then left for Europe,
and I went to the US. We eventually met in New York and
rented a room in the East Village where we’d spend all day
hunched over our laptops just making music and sharing
sounds. Looking back, we were both really just learning
how to use everything at that point. About a month later,
I left for Europe. I was only planning on a two-week trip,
but somehow I ended up in South America, and 5 months
later I resurfaced in New York in the dead of winter. During
that 5-month period, we had all been working on a bunch
of material. Melati, Isaac and I then rented a warehouse
in Brooklyn above an old Cabaret theatre with our good
friend, Trent Gill (a.k.a. Galapagoose). It was February,
and New York had just been hit with a huge snow blizzard.
It was so brutal. Our place didn’t have any heating, and I
just remember huddling up together for long cold nights,
sharing all the music we’d been making during our travels
and trying to keep warm. This is when the idea of Melt
actually came together. We suddenly realized we had all
this music, and began piecing together everything we’d
been working on. We did most of it in New York. Then Isaac
and I went back to Australia to mix the record with Trent.”
The track “Slip Time” takes a more experimental approach,
building its angular repeating hook around a shrieking
synth line. More than a few robotic bleeps and blips can be
heard before recognizable vocals make their way into the
fray. It’s all cascading layers of voices until more stabilizing
handclap percussion emerges at the end. Michael describes
how the compositions evolve: “It’s definitely a joint effort,
and I think it works best this way. We all bounce ideas off
one another. Sometimes months will pass where we’ve all
been writing separately, and then we’ll get together and
show all the songs - sketch ideas we’ve come up with. Then
share ideas and send the tracks back and forth, and it kind
of just builds from there.”
Other cuts like “You With Air” pulse along a jumpy
keyboard line while harmonized voices repeat the titular
phrase. This drone sets the tone for the verses to be
presented in half-talk, half-chant manner. Michael shed
additional light on the band’s origins and influences:
“I grew up in a musical family. My Grandfather was a
musician and so was my father. We actually had a studio
at my house when I was growing up in Melbourne.
Looking back, it was pretty dope. My Dad built it and
ran an independent record label from an office space in
our backyard. There were always a lot of instruments
lying around the house, and I think that’s where I started
to pick it up. I remember I’d always sit in on recording
sessions in the studio, and try and sneak something
on the recordings. But my Dad was predominately a
guitar player, so I grew up playing mostly guitar and
experimenting with all of the percussion lying around.
I remember in primary school, there were a group of us
that would sneak into the music hall during lunchtime
and experiment with all the gear they had lying around.
I started playing in punk bands quite young, and by the
time I was in high school was playing in these crazy avantgarde
experimental psychedelic bands, with horn sections,
cheap synths, a Theremin and all type of self-indulgent
42 the deli Fall 2012