[This review was originally published in Badaboom Gramaphone #3 and appears here with permission.]
Magic Dirt, from Geelong, Australia, is a musical Reese’s Cup. The band’s punk contains a liberal dose of pop melodicism, while its pop tunes are spiced with a healthy amount of noise. At its best — as on Life Was Better‘s “Amoxycillin,” which starts as a brash pop song and closes with a ten-minute feedback concerto — Magic Dirt evokes the power of Daydream Nation-era Sonic Youth. Adalita Srsen’s vocals range from a detached, conversational tone to passionate keening. A fondness for narratives on an EP entitled Signs of Satanic Youth furthers the SY comparisons. Magic Dirt builds on the deconstructed jangle of its idols by setting the melodies back up while retaining the fury.
Magic Dirt is a collection of previously released EPs from the Dirt’s days as Stooges-besotted teens and is filled with anthems, mega-riffs, brash bursts of noise and reckless power surges. The more mature Friends in Danger employs a larger palette. On the first half, gentle ballads leaven the bombastic domination. The second half is more agreeable, especially the triptych of “Fear,” a creepy, out-there, soundtrack-like bit of experimentation; the queasy, slow-burner “Befriended Fallen Angel”; and the straight-ahead pounding but catchy closer, “I Was Cruel.”