about
DIY pop raconteur Marc Rigelsford – the mastermind behind Manchester's Magic Arm – has got some nerve. It takes a brave soul to pen a debut album as daring and different as 2009’s acclaimed Make Lists, Do Something – a record that tumbles through the kaleidoscopic pop sprawl of early McCartney and Beach Boys adding a sinister electronic edge.
The prodigious Mancunian’s much anticipated new EP, Put Your Collar Up, is every bit as adventurous. Recorded alone with the multi-talented Rigelsford performing all instruments, it looks certain to cement his growing reputation as one of the most exciting prospects in British music today – in the words of the Guardian Guide, “like waves of lysergic happiness lapping against your cerebral cortex."
That Magic Arm began in 2006 as a favour to a friend whose film needed a soundtrack is telling of the cinematic overtones that make Put Your Collar Up such an epic listening experience. From those beginnings, the project soon snowballed into a phenomenon of its own, winning praise from the likes of Lauren Laverne, Zane Lowe and Marc Riley. More important however were the ringing endorsements of his peers: Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear described Rigelsford as “incredible”, while Samuel Beam of Iron and Wine dubbed him “the master of the loop pedal.”
“It looks at starting an album from scratch and being daunted by the endless possibilities, directions and ideas,” says the songwriter of the surging title track here – an infectious folk anthem thrown off centre by detuned pianos and woozy synth noises. Cinema Times is more introspective still, Rigelsford musing on a bout of melancholic nostalgia - “thinking the past is better than the present wondering how to redress the balance” as he puts it – at the epicentre of a pulsating brass-accompanied dance number. By the time the haunting Through the Mire pulls the EP to a close, you’ll be frothing at the mouth at the prospect of next year’s incoming full length, Images Rolling.
From the simple stairwell used to record parts of this EP (“to give it that lost and distant sound,” he explains) to the branch of Cash Converters where he happened upon a dusty Yamaha CS-10 keyboard sparking the love affair with lo-fi electronics at the heart of Magic Arm, Rigelsford finds inspiration even in the unlikeliest of places. Now it’s your turn to be inspired by him.
lyrics
Put your collar up
People won't receive
Your lack of any energy, too well on your decent
To be taken oh so seriously
I have to treat you like a job for the time being now
And why won't you say that the planets move in the right way?
Is this the right way now?
Is it the right way now?
You were stuck to the ice, just the warmth of your heart beating, and your heart beating
One morning closer to complete
Where's that imaginary scene?
I say aloud again
Too be taken oh so seriously
I'll have to treat this like a job for the time being now
And why won't you say that the planets move in the right way?
Is this the right way now?
Is it the right way now?
You were stuck to the ice, just the warmth of your heart beating, and your heart beating
House on the ridge
Leads to the shore
Leads to the shore
The house can't change our lives
Over the night
Over the night
And why won't you say that the planets move in the right way?
Is this the right way now?
Is it the right way now?
You were stuck to the ice, just the warmth of your heart beating, and your heart beating
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