Magneta Lane

Dancing with Daggers

Canada. It's the place where my mate's girlfriend comes from. The home of Mounties and maple syrup. Apparently the place that Shellac write all of their songs aboot. I've never been but I've heard it's a nice place. I know I'm in a minority, but for all the things Canadians are good at (being a bit French; being a bit American; Ice Hockey) they generally make terrible music. Honestly, nobody real actually likes Adams, Morrissette or Dion, and I think Arcade Fire sound like Dexy's Midnight Runners. So there. I like Death From Above 1979. They produced this album. Magenta Lane are Canadian. And I rather like this too.

At first I was worried about the presence of girls. Normally bands full of girls get signed because they're full of girls and thus easy to market. You won't find them pushing too many boundaries because boundaries are hard to market. They are usually hot though. And even if they're not hot, girls in bands are always sexy. Magenta Lane are three hot girls, and although they're not fully pushing the experimental envelope, they are nudging it suggestively.

Lexi Valentine sounds like a lady Julian Casablancas. There are moments where she flirts with Kim Deal (‘The Better Plan') or Katherine Hanna (‘Wild Gardens'), but The Strokes-y nonchalance is present throughout. Her lyrics are full of references to doomed trysts in the woods and bloody roses, but Nick Cave-isms aside, she delivers them with enough sultry spooky menace to be fully touching. The music is again indebted to the Strokes style of new wave indie sharpness, but you're constantly thrown by little twists which keep things interesting. Opener ‘Bridge to Terabithia' works on a lovely Mogwai-esque chime-to-thunder dynamic. The DFA 79 boys have perfectly produced the guitars to sound like a load of great 4AD bands, whilst simultaneously making the bass-lines growl and buzz like the best bits of I'm a Woman, You're a Machine. All the while you notice hints of odd instruments like glockenspiels and marimba just to throw you further off track. ‘Broken Plates' pulls a weird little groove akin to The Jesus Lizard's ‘The Test'. ‘22' is a low slung riffy beast about disappointment, replete with Karen O style yelps, which then segues into the catchy la-la-la-la's of ‘Secrets Aren't So Bad'. Which then sweeps into the post-hardcore romance of ‘Carnival In Spain'. They're clearly a modern indie-pop band, and there are more than few hooks and harmonies, but they don't pull the shapes without adding something new. ‘Artistic Condition' even manages to make Bloc Party's stylistic homage to Gang of Four sound sexy.

And as much as it's easy to place who Magenta Lane sound like, it takes the first verse of closing track ‘Butterflies are Blue' to bring it home that it isn't really that important anyway: "Change/ Always so nice/ Didn't even notice." I haven't much changed my opinion of Canadian music, but now at least there are two Canadian bands that I like.

Keith Patterson

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