MAGICK BROTHER & MYSTIC SISTER – Tarot Part II (2024, LP/CD Sound Effect Records)
RELEASE INFO:
Label: Sound Effect Records
Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, Black Vinyl (gatefold cover with full color printed inner sleeve with the Tarot cards & graphics), 450 copies
Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, Sea Blue Vinyl (gatefold cover with full color printed inner sleeve with the Tarot cards & graphics), 300 copies
Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, Blue/Black Galaxy Vinyl (gatefold cover with full color printed inner sleeve with the Tarot cards & graphics), 150 copies
Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, Blood Red/Black Galaxy Vinyl (gatefold cover with full color printed inner sleeve with the Tarot cards & graphics, incl. Tarot Stickers), 100 copies
Format: CD, Album, Limited Edition (six panels digipack with clear tray)
Release Date: 22 Nov 2024
Magick Brother & Mystic Sister released their debut self-titled album in June 2020 (check my review here) and it hit me like “thunder on a clear day”. I became an admirer and follower of their music since then… Fast forward to 2024, the band materialized a huge project of their own, the “Tarot” one. The first Part was released in March 2024 (check my review here) while the second part was released in November 2024. Here’s what the press release says:
“Magick Brother & Mystic Sister will release “Tarot Pt. II” on November 22, 2024. “Tarot Pt. I,” released in March 2024, was met with critical acclaim and enthusiasm from its countless devoted fans around the world. Now is the time for the second part that will complete the circle of this album about the Tarot universe.
“Tarot Pt. II” is meant to be heard and experienced visually on vinyl: when the two discs are combined, the inner covers form an astrological mandala, a planetary wheel. “Tarot Pt. II” will be released on November 22, 2024 on limited edition gatefold vinyl, incl. printed inner sleeve (classic black edition, limited navy edition and 2 extremely limited editions, one mail-order only, on galaxy blue/black vinyl and on galaxy black/red vinyl and including random Tarot stickers. Also to be released in 6-panel CD digipack.
Mysterious Barcelona band Magick Brother & Mystic Sister return with their “Tarot Pt. 2”. completing this 2-part concept album, a kaleidoscope of 22 songs based on the Major Arcana of the Tarot, a cross-cultural dream language. With their signature imaginative compositions featuring space-age keys and spiraling synths, intricate guitar mosaics and bass lines, pounding drums, exotic percussion, flute, cosmic and sitar sounds that carve textures for atmospheric female vocals, MBMS fuses a kind of dream-prog, Canterbury-like cosmic jazz, retro-futuristic Krautrock and folk magical, creating their own universe and thus turning it into an essential musical experience.
For this second part Eva Muntada (vocals, synthesizers, mellotron, organ, piano), Xavier Sandoval (bass and guitars), Alejandro Carmona (drums) and, the new member of the band, Tony Jagwar (sitar, guitars) have counted on the collaboration of Glenn Brigman (vocals), Didac Ruiz (percussions) and Maddy Gray (voiceover)”…
“Tarot Part II” contains 11 tracks, 6 on the first side and the rest 5 on the second. The opener “Strength” is a fantastic amalgam of Neo-Progressive-Rock, Psychedelia, and Space Rock, there’s an addictive hallucinogenic Organ sound that blends with a rather trippy & spacey psychedelic guitar sound with consecutive gradations in mood and sound, resulting in a dimensional colorful mind-blending terrific soundscape! “The Hanged Man” is an instrumental presenting a more “earthly” or “grounded” (if you prefer) trippy Psychedelia, electronically flavored and spacey-flirting with a cerebral dream-a-delic magical musical environment! The next two tracks are also instrumentals, “The Unnamed Arcane” follows, with a dreamy, serene, acoustically trippy scenery, flirting with Ambient and Space, full of some colorful Kosmique energy, and “The Temperance”, a soft & mellow tune with a lysergically trippy psychedelic background and some ethereal female voices flirting (once more) with Kosmique Space music, this is a quite adventurous full of spacey effects Trip-a-delic track! The amazing unbelievably magical stunning Space-Krauty-Rock “The Devil” follows and I get the feeling of being inside Brainticket’s first album! The first side closes with the futuristic “The Tower”, Prog-Rock with a touch of Space-Rock… Under a dreamy and spacey-effected start, “The Star” opens side ‘B’, the place is filled with tremendous Cosmic energy, several colorful floating psychedelic patterns all over, a track that acts as a supersonic electronic meditative tune, a dark but relaxing atmosphere, quite trippy and deeply experimental (reminds me a bit of the early 70s electronic Berlin School). “The Moon” uses the same soundscape as the previous track, Eva’s vocals add something “exotic” to the sound, without getting away from the SPACE frontiers, this is New Age Space music with a strong Psychedelic feel, it is “grounded” Space Rock but at the same time, it gives you the feel of elevating up in the deep Space… One of the strongest moments of the album is the next one called “The Sun”, and it seems that the Spaceship has landed… At the surface of a faraway planet… The band blends Psychedelia, Space Rock, and Progressive Rock resulting in a new PSYCH hybrid of modern age Psychedelia!!! On “The Judgement”, the scenery remains soft, serene, and relaxing, sitar and acoustic guitars create a unique cosmically charged Psychedelic soundscape, spreading ethereal vibes all over, really mind-bending! Eventually, the album comes to an end with “The World”, a fantastic piece of sitar-laced Psychedelic music, that penetrates your body, and your mind, making your brain cells run at the speed of light, crashing down, releasing huge amounts of Brain Substance in the universe of your inner-self, MIND BLOWING! So, it seems that Magick Brother & Mystic Sister with the “Tarot” albums reached a high level of mind-expanding Psychedelic music… The future is theirs… Can they top this? I will anxiously await their next moves… And one last thing… Magick Brother & Mystic Sister probably have all the ingredients to become worthy ambassadors of the European Neo-Psychedelic scene… TimeLord Michalis
- both “Tarot” albums are in the TOP 5 of my Best Albums of 2025 (check the list here)
- Here’s an interesting chat I did with Eva (click here)
Tracklist
A1 | Strength | 5:05 | |
A2 | The Hanged Man | 3:31 | |
A3 | The Unnamed Arcane | 3:25 | |
A4 | The Temperance | 4:26 | |
A5 | The Devil | 3:23 | |
A6 | The Tower | 3:16 | |
B1 | The Star | 5:00 | |
B2 | The Moon | 5:54 | |
B3 | The Sun | 4:42 | |
B4 | The Judgement | 5:56 | |
B5 | The World | 7:12 |
Listen through MAGICK BROTHER & MYSTIC SISTER Bandcamp
Get it via SOUND EFFECT RECORDS Web
Alternatively, get iv via SHINY BEAST Mailorder