Midnight Magic - What the Eyes Can't See

  • Published
    Sep 28, 2011
  • Words
  • Label
    White label
    N/A
  • Released
    August 2011
  • Genre
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  • The full title of this EP—downloadable without charge from Scion A/V's website—is Scion A/V Presents: Midnight Magic - What the Eyes Can't See, and there's no point in denying that it made me skeptical at first. The punk-sired idea of corporate-sponsorship-as-vampire has largely been defanged (all record companies are corporations, no matter how small), but it's also often the case that these sorts of freebies from companies looking to align themselves with music culture tend to be outtakes and/or quickies (e.g. Kia Soul's weekly giveaway singles last summer). That skepticism turned out to be misplaced: if none of these five tracks are at the level of "Beam Me Up," they all sink in quickly enough, and they hold up to a lot of listens. "What the Eyes Can't See" screams 1976, just as their throwback-disco hearts intend, with its shuffling hi-hat/foot combo and horns that flutter and smack like moths against light fixtures. On "Heat," sparkling synths and chase-scene horns go at a jogger's pace while Tiffany Roth's throaty croon smolders rather than erupting in flames—a slower burn that also works well on the more overtly stomping "Calling Out." The keyboards of "Someone's Watching Me" are so bubbly they temper the song's paranoia, but they're also so insistent that they underline it, as does Roth's edgy vocal and the rushed rhythm—it's a definite nod to Rockwell's 1984 "Somebody's Watching Me," without really sounding like it. Its tonal opposite, and my favorite cut here, is "Julio" (pronounced "Ju-leee-oh"), which has the highest-pitched synths, the busiest bassline, the funkiest and sparest horn arrangement, and the itchiest guitar. I can't wait to hear a real album.
  • Tracklist
      01. What the Eyes Can't See 02. Heat 03. Someone's Watching Me 04. Julio 05. Calling Out
RA