Sunday 25 October 2009

Here We Go Magic - Here We Go Magic


Vivacious with its African tribal grooves, hypnotic in its looped electronics, experimental in its use of sound and something of a sidestep in career terms, Luke Temple, previously branded with the singer-songwriter iron, put Here We Go Magic together in what’s described as two-month stream-of-consciousness period at his Brooklyn home. It’s proved a productive and worthwhile excursion.

Temple hits the ground running with the brightly up-tempo world music of ‘Only Pieces’, follows it with the quite delightfully engaging ‘Fangela’ but then wanders around a little, hitting the target here and just missing it there. To be fair, that’s how creative ground is broken; it’s certainly worth noting that these four-track deliberations have a depth to them that matches the album’s more contemplative moods.

Unlike the title of the richly meshed acoustic guitar and programmed backbeat ‘Tunnelvision’, this is an imaginative recording, made by someone prepared to push at his artistic envelope. Temple’s occasional straying into ambient noise territory works less well than when he’s finding ways to enhance his song-writing craft, the afore-mentioned ‘Fangela’, the album’s highpoint, is fundamentally a genuinely lovely song given an electronica makeover, but overall it’s a good stretching of creative legs.

Luke Temple Official Website

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