Track Listing

1. Last Engineer
2. England's Always Better (As You're Pulling Away)
3. Incurable (Reprise)
4. Soldier Song
5. King Cannot Be Found
6. Great Escapes
7. Cities & Factories
8. Halfway Through
9. Saints Preserve Us
10. Part-Monster

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #231853 in Music
• Released on: 2007-05-29
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
"A band confident with seemingly limitless quality craftsmanship and recurrent reinvention." -- Delusions of Adequacy

"Stealthy witching hour atmospherics are utterly overwhelming." -- Uncut

"Splendidly ethereal." -- Brainwashed

Part-Monster, Piano Magic's seventh "proper" album, easily lives up to its title. Though Piano Magic is generally tarred with the brushes of "ambient," "coldwave," or even "ghost rock," Part-Monster has its fill of all-out, near-brutal dynamic intensity. Indeed, anyone who's witnessed PM live over the past two years will testify that the shadowy introspection of the group's records is camouflage for a beast of many teeth. Bringing in Guy Fixsen of Laika as producer clearly marked the band's intention for a more raw, powerful sound, as Fixsen has taken the production and/or engineer chair for such luminaries as The Pixies, Moonshake, The Breeders, Joy Zipper, Stereolab, Lush, and most notably, My Bloody Valentine's Loveless.

That's not to say that Piano Magic has entirely turned the amps up to eleven. Part-Monster gracefully balances cathartic noise with romantic paeans to the band's favorite subject--the cruel, tragic side of London and the city's most graceful outcast, Joseph Carey Merrick (The Elephant Man). In its tenth year of existence, Piano Magic can look back on a varied and accomplished discography most bands wouldn't manage in a lifetime of trying. Records for 4AD, Darla, Morr Music, Important, and many more mark the band's way, in addition to the soundtrack to Bigas Luna's Son De Mar (2001) and performances at some of the biggest festivals in Europe (Benicassim, Primavera, BAM).

Customer Reviews

Precious disillusion
...or something like that: the mixed sentiment the music and lyrics seem to convey, without overanalyzing. That's what comes to mind after three listens to this record, a middle-quality PM in terms of overall freshness and effect. Which is to say that (I think) any fan of the band should be pretty happy with the purchase. And IF you like it, you may like even more the "sister" album by Future Conditional. Johnson and David-Gillou still making a good tandem. I no longer fear the band's slipping ability apparent on the last CD. It's good we don't have to wait five years or so between offerings, either.