Magic Roundabout – UP

Well, if the Re-released Into the Wild column is any indication, I love a good rescue tale and the 34-year journey of UK noise-psych unit Magic Roundabout slides into the pantheon of lost albums quite nicely. Interesting to see Third Man pushing their boundaries far and away from the Detroit link that often binds their picks for resurfacing and repackaging, but here there’s no discernible hometown hook. The band found themselves gaining popularity in the mid-80s opening for The Pastels, Blue Aeroplanes, Spacemen 3, Loop, My Bloody Valentine, and Inspiral Carpets. They built the kind of resume that seems destined to slot them into one of the indie rosters active at the time. Recordings were made, ostensibly for an album, but they never really made it to the fully formed stage outside of “She’s a Waterfall (Parts 1 and 2),” which would turn up on Mark Webber’s (Pulp) 1987 Oozing Through The Ozone Layer fanzine cassette compilation.

Before a follow-up single could be released the band would dissolve, leaving a three-decade hole in the hearts of fans. Now the Pale Saints’ Ian Masters has has sourced out all the material that the band recorded at the time, polishing these rough gems along with local mastering head Warren Defever (His Name Is Alive) into fuzz-caked janglers that stretch out and melt in the sun. Under a blanket of hiss, the band push feedback and froth alongside bittersweet vocal melodies, culminating in the crushing, exploratory “Alice’s Paper Plane,” clocking in at nearly twenty minutes. In a year packed with releases, this one still seems to be flying a bit under the radar, but its well worth digging into the din that Magic Roundabout kicked up.