Steve Kilbey and MartinKennedy - White Magic

Tue 15th Feb, 2011 in Music Reviews

What happens when you combine a shaman poet and a musical mystic? Or an astral wordsmith and a dream weaver? Or a lyrical high priest and a soulful sorcerer? The answer to this and many of life’s questions can be found on Steve Kilbey and Martin Kennedy’s second record, White Magic.

These two powerhouses of Australian music bring their own originality and talents to a “more than a side project” affair. For Kilbey it is his ability to pull out clever and witty lyrics custom-built for the brain and the heart while Kennedy is the ambient instrumentalist from All India Radio who can create layer-upon-layer of sonic sounds without losing sight of the bigger picture.

This record seems almost custom-built for fans of Decoder Ring, The Flaming Lips and Kim Salmon & The Surrealists: it basically teases the senses with its variety of twists and turns with music that sounds like it could have been borne from freeform expression and other spontaneous and creativity inducing jams.

There is some Lynch-like atmospherics and Eno-weirdness (only the best) not to mention lots of delicate and light acoustic guitar. The success of this album is in its ability to create busy-sounding atmospherics but also keep the listener guessing with an added curveball here and there.

Inner Country is a heady combination of lush strings and subtle tape loops borrowed from The Beatles’ Tomorrow Never Knows. Elsewhere we get prayers, spells, secrets and other musings put to a dreamy psychedelic soundtrack for one altogether cosmic journey through space and sound.