💽 Imaginal Disk by Magdalena Bay

If your memories pre-date the iTunes boom of the 2000’s, then you remember CDs. The first time you removed one from its jewel case—whether to play a computer game or to listen to music—you probably gazed curiously at the compact disk’s underside, dazzled as I was, by its mirror-like surface as it emanated rainbow lines.  These enchanting devices clearly made an impression on Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin, the quicksilver synth duo of Magdalena Bay. On the cover of their sophomore album, Imaginal Disk, a demon hand inserts a CD into Ms. Tenenbaum’s forehead. The hi-def record sounds as if it emanates from that glimmering surface. To travel through its 53-minute run time is to enter its glossy galaxy or let its mercury enter you.

The swelling electronics, the grooving rhythm section, Tenenbaum’s alternatingly ethereal and rasping voice; it all sounds like some late millennial spawn of Prince and Kate Bush—who was raised on 2000’s pop radio. But more than anything, Magdalena Bay out themselves as omnivorous music nerds. A reference to 60’s band Love’s opus Forever Changes, in the spooky chanted outro of “Killing Time?” Nice. Is that an interpolation of Yes’s “Owner of A Lonely Heart,” on “Tunnel Vision?” It hits just before the swirling prog-rock climax. Impressive.

Within and between songs, there’s a push and pull between foot-tapping bops and out-of-body space-outs. The twinkling synth lines wind around like video game interludes, straight from the Mushroom Kingdom’s mix of medieval-gothic and digital whimsy. But it’s Lewin’s tendinous bass that draws us back into the beat, back into our bodies begging to dance.

Within those passages, Imaginal Disk swirls between the mundanities of daily life and the surreal beneath its surface.  In descriptions of a home and a family it seems Tenenbaum wishes to transcend the “ordinary,” as she labels it on the album’s first and last tracks. Thematically, that betrays an adolescent bent to Imaginal Disk, which I’ve found underwhelming and nondescript on some listens. But all the same, I return to Imaginal Disk like so many other cherished CDs to once again experience its magical mirrored world. 

One More Thing

Happy Halloween y’all! My spooky-mood setting staples include: the original Hellraiser franchise, Grimes’s 2012 record Visions, and walks around my nearest graveyard. 

Up Next

With Halloween on a Thursday, Halloweekend is extended through Sunday 11/2. I’m so excited to be out on the town and seeing everyone in their wildest costumes.

Editors Note: this was ready and planned to be published back on Nov 1st, but I, Kevin, am a dunce.