MAGICK BROTHER & MYSTIC SISTER – Tarot Pt.1 (2024, LP/CD Sound Effect Records) 

RELEASE INFO:

Label: Sound Effect Records

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, Black Vinyl, Gatefold, 700 copies

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, Blood Red Vinyl, Gatefold, 200 copies

Format: LP, Album, Ultra Limited Edition, Clear/Red Splatter, Gatefold, 100 copies

Format: CD, Album, Digipack

Release Date: 29 March 2024

This Cosmic, Jazzy, Dreamy, Folkie, Proggy, Poppy, Spacey, Neo-Psychedelic MAGICAL Duo from Barcelona’s Magic Mountain, is back almost 4 years after their debut self-titled LP “Magick Brother & Mystic Sister”, with the album “Tarot” that will be released in 2 parts, “Tarot Pt.1” has already been released through Greek label Sound Effect Records on 29 March 2024. (Their 2020 debut album reached No2 in our TOP50 Albums of that year, check our review here:) 

So, while waiting for the release of the 2nd part of “Tarot” (in approximately 2 months) let’s have a closer view of Part 1. The Press Release states:

“Magick Brother & Mystic Sister, the mysterious band from Barcelona, return with not one, but 2 albums! “Tarot Pt.1” and “Tarot Pt.2” is a concept album in 2 parts, a psychedelic record, a kaleidoscope of songs based upon the Major Arcana of the Tarot, a cross-cultural dream language.

With their signature imaginative compositions, featuring space-age keys and spiraling synthesizers, intricate guitar mosaics and bass lines, powerful drums, tribal percussion, and exotic instruments carving textures for atmospheric feminine vocals, MBMS merge a kind of dream-prog, of the Canterbury variety, with retro-futuristic sounds and magic folk atmospheres, shaping up their own universe, thus turning the “Tarot” concept into an unmissable experience!

The band decided to release the record in two parts, giving the listener more time to meditate upon the music. This is an album that is meant to be listened to and experienced visually on vinyl, its sleeve recalling the bold designs of the late 1960s – early 1970s – when the two records are combined, the interior gatefolds form an astrological mandala, a planetary wheel”…

For this album, the musicians/members of the band consist of Eva Muntada (synthesizers, mellotron, organ, piano), Xavier Sandoval (bass and guitar), Alejandro Carmona (drums), Toni Jagwar (sitar / new member of the band) with the help of Maya Fernandez (flute), Glenn Brigman (vocals), and Didac Fernandez (percussion).

“Tarot Pt.1” contains 11 tracks, 11 complex musical compositions clock-ticking from 2:52 to 5:39 minutes, and it seems that the LP and the CD Format are far away below the expectations concerning the individual timing of the tracks, because how else can I justify the unexpected fading at the end on most of the songs… I believe an average of around 15 minutes per song would be more than ideal!!! But, that’s just my humble opinion… I do not like to make comparisons between the previous and the last album of the band but a general comment would be something like “Taror Pt.1” is less PSYCHEDELIC than their previous debut album, BUT is far more mature, artistically and composition-ally, an album that magically blends more sub-genres than their debut album… There’s Space Music, there’s Psychedelia (of course), there’s Progressive Rock, pinches of Exotica and cinematic music, a huge gamma of styles that almost reaches the borders of New Age Music…

How about a closer look/listen…

The album takes off in a kind of trippy ambient way with “The Fool”, slowly to be transformed into a spacey marching slow piece of Psychedelia with warm imaginary female vocals, backward guitars, musically blending 70s Space Music with Psychedelia, and New Age Music, resulting on some Modern Space-a-delia! Space-a-delia continues on “The Wizard” too, magically embodied with some wonderful Modern Progressive Rock music, a track with various fluctuations, acting like a rather adventurous Film Score for an early 70s Sci-Fi B-movie, cool! “The High Priestess” is a fantastic piece of fictional spacey-proggy Psychedelia with an exotic touch and a soft n’ mellow Tubular Bells-folkie atmospheric background, this is Spacey Dream-a-delica! Under a dreamy intro “The Empress” slowly unfolds its Cosmic foundations, ethereal female voices coming from beyond, a remarkable piece blending Psych, Space, and Prog in a fantastically Trippy way… “The Emperor” is a faster tune, kind of fuzzy and spacey with a sharp fuzzy adventurous guitar sound and a quite cinematic feel, there’s a tremendous Mind Bending PSYCHEDELIC atmos transformed into Prog (early 70s), finding the listener lusting for more… Side ‘B’ opens in a very trippy way with “The Hierophant”, a sitar-laced track acting like the main theme from a classic late 60s Cult Psychploitation movie with an amazing Funky-Psych-Spacey Rhythm! “The Lover” has a Neo-Futuristic opening flavored with a fascinating retro dreamy-prog atmosphere, sooner to be transformed into a mystical kind of sacred transcendental Psychedelia, a weirdly beautiful track… “The Chariot” is a fine blend of some flute(y) West Coast Psychedelia, funky Prog, Dreamy Pop, and Exotic Space, a colorful mosaic of Mynd-Bending Psych sounds! “The Justice” is Dreamy-Prog, Canterbury flirting with amazing female harmonic vocals and a magnificent flute sound coming straight out of the Laurel Canyon community, this is a rather cool track with a weird-psych middle section… “The Hermit”, starting as an abstract ambient-like tune, becoming quite futuristic, this is another piece of weird atmospheric Psych music, fantastically Trippy! The album comes to an end with “The Wheel Of Fortune”, a wondrous acoustic piece of dreamy Space-Psychedelia emerging a folkie medieval feel, with trippy male vocals, a track that is probably acting as a farewell of Part I and a welcome of Part II…  

So, Magick Brother & Mystic Sister raised the bar high with their previous debut album, and it seems that they keep raising the bar with their sophomore “Tarot Pt.1” LP album, it’s one of the best Underground Psych-related releases of 2024, and I’m having Great Expectations for them in the nearby future… Invest… TimeLord Michalis 

Tracklist

Links:

Listen/Buy through MAGICK BROTHER & MYSTIC SISTER Bandcamp 

Get it via SOUND EFFECT RECORDS Web 

Visit  MAGICK BROTHER & MYSTIC SISTER Facebook 

Alternatively, grab it via SHINY BEAST Mailorder