Hard-edged Indie Hokus-Pokus!
Okay, well here we have something a little more different, and by that I don’t mean the normal strange and bizarre infused wackiness, but a band that surrounds the brainchild of Dan Ormsby, who quite proudly proclaims having written all of the band’s songs, sung them, played all of the drums, played half of the guitars and a ‘negligible’ amount of keyboards. However, whereby normally we would be expecting to see that Dan lives with his mum, is 53 and recorded this all himself, what we get is the surprise that not only is there a band to go along with this maverick, but another couple that appear to join in when playing live. Therefore the name is a little deceiving, as although I cannot confirm nor deny whether any of the band are members of the Magic Circle, there does appear to be between 4 and 6 of them, and not being totally satisfied with that, the band are also on the look out for a brass section…
‘Change The Record’ shows that the band have more than one foot firmly planted within the Indie genre, however there is a nice beat behind it, and Dan’s popularly English voice coupled with his poetic lyrics give the song a catchy tune. Now, this song is then blown apart by the B-side, (or second double A-Side, as I think that it is here) ‘Ideal man’. To start with it sounds like 20 musicians tuning up at one, but soon jumps into a drum beat that hardens my nipples with desire, and a long with what it almost bordering on Melodic/Punk guitar riffs gives us a song that is as strong as a dozen shots of espresso. The lyrics go, “He wouldn’t say boo to a goose // But he would say ‘Cunt’ to a nun,” and I would go on, but I’m not entirely sure of the next line, and there is a good chance that main man Dan may well poison-pen me in his review of reviews. Whether perceived as poetic humour, or intellectual lyrical observations, on top of the fabulous back beat, who really gives a flying flapjack. This is rock’n’roll, baby!
If Arctic Monkeys wrestled The Kooks in a death match where the weapons were guitar riffs, hand-claps and limericks, this would be the soundtrack. 4 Or 5 Magicians are a band that have that college Indie-feel that is a little punky and disjointed, but in a good way, and it keeps them away from the shine of the over-produced factory-line of Pop/Indie, and proves once again that the Brighton scene is very bright indeed…Alakazam!