The Magic Band


Could It Be Magic?


JazzWorld Stage - Friday

How lovely it was to have The Magic Band here at Glastonbury this year. They leashed out the “Trout Mask Replica” in a cool and knowing way to an audience who clearly knew this music intimately.

This is the first time the band have made any stirrings of their music in 22 years and Captain Beefheart himself keeps a mysterious distance. The remaining group appear from another time and another place but there is something about this music, so iconic and unmistakable, that just comes out to smile like a genie having been freshly rubbed from its long discarded oil lantern.

We’re reminded that the spirit of Bo Didley encompasses this music for all its bite and gnawing brilliance but its not hard stuff to chew. In fact, one is faced with a sound that’s not in the least bit retrospective or nostalgic. If anything, it feels as if we’re all just about catching up with them. Captain Beefheart himself may remain a recluse but he has created something out of these oddly glamorous looking hill-billys that’s dazzling to watch and his absence seems strangely characteristic to the monstrous nature of his songs.

The orchestration, particularly of the instrumental stuff, has a way of just tripping up on the rational mind. Its meshing and interruption upon interruption of rhythms has a way of pleasing our childish minds.

Chris Cundy

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