White Magic
Issue #34
Dark Stars (Drag City)
By Anna Breshears
Published: December 1st, 2007 | 4:01pm
Helmed by singer, songwriter, and head witch Mira Billotte, Manhattan quartet White Magic stirs folk, psych, blues, and goth into an intoxicating brew on its Dark Stars EP. As on its 2006 full-length, Dat Rosa Mel Apibus, the band continues to dabble in dark themes, shadowy drones, and swirling piano melodies, all embellished by Billotte’s permutable wail.
“Shine On Heaven” flows like a velvety Renaissance gown, and Billotte’s ethereal vocals linger on the words like a heavy forest fog. She shifts focus in the foreboding “Very Late,” her saucy, blues-tinged singing-humming furnishing an unusual counterpoint to the whirling guitar and Dirty Three’s drummer Jim White’s quiet but menacing rhythms. On “Poor Harold,” guitarist Doug Shaw joins Billotte for the creepy refrain “Poor Harold works all night / Works in the graveyard / Digging graves / Digging graves” against an ominous militaristic beat and clunky, sing-song piano borrowed from a children’s song gone terribly wrong.
White Magic doesn’t use reliable structures, choosing instead to let its songs stretch out and curve unpredictably before bringing them to a close. Occasionally, this approach backfires and the band never reaches a satisfying conclusion, as with the droning pastoral “Winds,” a lazy and ultimately disappointing sonic journey.
Despite its flaws, White Magic’s Dark Stars is a compelling new entry in the modern folk canon. While the band shares influences with like-minded artists Joanna Newsom and Faun Fables, its sound is entirely its own.
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