Majic - All Is Fair
[Limited Pleasure Ltd]

Take one bloke from Paris, one bird from Salford, three Chips hipsters, and mix them together. Result: something that sounds like it came straight from Sheffield on the autobahn. Ian Burden would be proud.

It all went pear-shaped for a while, somewhere around 2003, for Majic. The late, great Rob Gretton’s Manchester Records transmuted into Pleasure, an unworthy soul frittered away the legacy, and things went quiet for a couple of years.

A few tears, some frustration, and a brief reincarnation as Megarider later, and they’re back. With the proverbial vengeance. And it is, as was to be expected, Fucking Magnificent. Dark, brooding, glacial, menacing – everything (I mean EVERYTHING) you want it to be. Everything those early recordings promised.

Opening track Technology is a stormer. Mixed to perfection, and weirdly sounding simultaneously like Magazine, Paris Angels’ Perfume, something the BBC Radiophonic Workshop put together for a 1973 episode of Dr Who, and The Future, hearing this track is like that moment in 2003:A Space Odyssey when the monkey throws the bone.

Best track on the record is Rewind. There’s something inherently sexual about the Majic rhythm section that’s made all the more sleazy by the synths, and never more so than on this track. Heather Pasero’s germanic intonations and other half Denis’ technical jiggery pokery merge with Lee Mann’s filthy bass to make you ache with strange, and possibly illegal, desires. Listen to this with all the lights out and I’ll put money on you being naked before it’s over.

Wall of Death is electro-pop brilliance. It glances just shy of cheese, and that’s down to the gallic charm of the synths and bass, and the poignant catch in Heather’s voice. Full of the spirit of Betty Blue.

The only thing wrong with All Is Fair is - it’s a bloody mini-album. There are only six tracks. The only thing to be done, until they bring out a full length album, is to stick it on repeat and wonder why there’s so much crap available to buy when we could all be listening to Majic.