There’s a trio that combines African rhythms and 60s psychedelia, steeldrums, tambourines and analog synth-sounds? Sounds awfully like »All Hour Cymbals«-Yeasayers. But this is more than cheap epigonism, because Young Magic broaden the – by now well developed – approach to combine indie with world music by adding HipHop-influences between cLOUDDEAD and the Brainfeeder-label. But even though this does add a very special character to their debut-album, »Melt«, the more coining sound is actually inspired by a romanticized retro-futurism as well as an almost sterile view on Africa. In certain moments, it seems, as if some parts have been heard before somewhere else, in others, the clinical production becomes more audible. In those moments, the production could do with more percussions or West African influences like singings and sparkling guitar runs – or, at least, with a few more sources of friction and edges. Still, »Melt« is diverse, elaborate and really not a bad record, at all. It’s only that the songs, which came into being during traveling through ten different countries, pick up those influences a little too superficially, so that the listener almost wishes that Young Magic would have taken some more time for their travels. It surely would have done no harm to melting the different worlds of sounds into one another.
Melt
