MAGIK MARKERS

SURRENDER TO THE FANTASY (Drag City)

17/20

Magik Markers have nothing to prove. They’re the kind of band that make hip young people dribble with excitement. They look great, their name contains letters that shouldn’t be there, and they sound like they don’t give a flying onion what you think. Surrender to Fantasy is their, ahem, 39th official release since they formed a little over 10 years ago. So what, though? It’s easy to write noise rock, right? Yeah sure, it is very easy to sit and record noise. To do it extremely well and win extensive respect and adoration, however, is very fucking hard. Surrender… is a loud, tenacious record, but that doesn’t stop it being gently soothing. Elisa Ambrogio’s vocals remain low in the mix and sound glassy enough to counteract the rest of the band’s snarly, fuzzed out twangs and crashes. Mirrorless is a perfect example of this offset noise and lightness, while Bonfire is crass, interminably punk, and completely unrelenting in its attack. It’s very rare for a group like Magik Markers to break boundaries these days but Surrender… is a tender and endlessly listenable testament to the continuing importance of noise as a genre rather than an ideology.

– – – – – – – – – –

Words: Billy Black