We often start our pieces with a line about the artist’s country/hometown, a quick informative line to avoid having to think up a more imaginative way to start the review. However, it is rather difficult to pin down an exact geographic location for Eric & Magill.
The act is comprised of a duo from Milwaukee, so while that is the location I should be relaying to you, it hardly does justice to the diversity of places that have influenced the album in question. Night Singers was written and recorded when the duo were separated, with Eric Osterman relocating to Brooklyn and Ryan Weber with the Peace Corps in Kenya. The whole thing was put together thanks to the internet, a solid symbol of our advancements in the information age.
The reason I’m telling you all this is that I have a tendency to blank out when listening to shoegaze/electro-pop, the ebb and flow of the music having some sort of hypnotic influence that means, while enjoying it, I sometimes fail to appreciate exactly what is happening. It’s almost another meaning for the dream pop label, the passing of an album in an agreeable but hazy period that doesn’t stick in the memory for too long afterwards. However this time, armed with the curiosity spawned by the unconventional writing and recording process, I made an effort to really listen, and I found a great little album waiting to be heard.
Night Singers is an amalgamation of styles carefully knitted together with the familiar reverb-heavy vocals that featured on their previous release All Those I Know (which we featured here). Opening track ‘What I Say’ is reminiscent of M83, with glimmering electronic sounds framed with cascading drums to create a sprawling epic pop song. ‘Psycho’ is similarly large, with a quick tempo and crescendos around every corner. Others, like ‘Épingles et Aiguilles’ and ‘We’re The Ghosts’, are much slower and restrained, the electronics glittering behind soft vocals like dust in evening light.
Poor metaphors aside, the effect is a superb album. There are a number of feelgood pop songs that should satisfy those looking for that summer single, but those that listen to the entire LP in order are rewarded with something that stretches in a number of different directions, a cycling of speeds or focus that make the album like one long shoegaze hit, complete with hushed lulls and screaming crescendos.
Night Singers is out on the 23rd July on Perfect From Now On and you can buy it here. If you are impatient you can stream it now thanks to AllMusic.