The 11th official album by Anglo-French popular underground oxymoron, Piano Magic, ‘Life Has Not Finished With Me Yet’, sees the group emerging from beneath the wreckage of previous guitar-heavy albums to re-investigate the darker, more electronic sonic themes of their earlier work. Instant parallels will inevitably be drawn with the ghostly chamber pop of 1999’s ‘Artists Rifles’ and the even earlier surreal romanticism of ‘Low Birth Weight’. At the core, once again, Glen Johnson’s unashamedly nihilistic ruminations on the human condition, though now shrouded in foggy analog synth washes, pulsing heart beats, cathedral reverbs and Joe Meek-esque spectral vox. This is an album of beautiful, indispensible baroque ghostliness, of disconnected hearts and oceans. Touchstones would be the new, airless beauty of Regis and Raim, the timeless gravitas of Dead Can Dance and the urban, though melodic, isolationist output of late 70’s/early 80’s Factory records.
[youtube hYUWwHci-hE nolink]‘”Life Has Not Finished With Me Yet’ is released June 12th through Saint Marie Records.
