Magic Roundabout

One of the many outfits that followed in the wake of U.K. bands in the mid-'80s who combined '60s pop melodies with noisy, lo-fi recording techniques, Manchester's Magic Roundabout's few existing recordings place them somewhere between the clamorously noisy attack of the Jesus and Mary Chain and the fragile tenderness of the <a href="spotify:artist:0Ve3Nd1OJkRcQeKRTpvxhQ">Shop Assistants</a>. They only released one song while together as a band; their entire recorded output was issued years later by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Third+Man+Records%22">Third Man Records</a> on 7" and LP.

The group formed in 1986, inspired by <a href="spotify:artist:1nJvji2KIlWSseXRSlNYsC">the Velvet Underground</a> and ready to play shows even before they had mastered their instruments. Soon after getting a batch of songs together, they shared stages with the likes of <a href="spotify:artist:3G3Gdm0ZRAOxLrbyjfhii5">My Bloody Valentine</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:4Nu0EL8c5d2vFHPOcNjlBP">the Pastels</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0ReGrqp2iQLy9fySkDCIDh">Loop</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:4MTSrVgHNfGtYV9pek8vY5">the Blue Aeroplanes</a>. Their enthusiasm and hooky songs caught the ear of <a href="spotify:artist:36E7oYfz3LLRto6l2WmDcD">Pulp</a>'s Mark Webber, who added the band's songs "She's a Waterfall Part 1" and "She's a Waterfall Part 2" to his 1997 cassette compilation Oozing Through the Ozone Layer. Magic Roundabout recorded more songs, though, even making a video for "Sneaky Feelin'," a hooky stop-start track that could have been their first real single. Instead, the band dissolved before the end of the decade and fell so far off the radar, neither of the two songs that did see the light of day during their brief run ever made it to any of the retrospective compilations that covered the era.

One person who didn't forget them was Ian Masters of the <a href="spotify:artist:0WY2ddzQUF9eh16GiqrElA">Pale Saints</a>, who years later came into possession of the master tapes for two of the band's songs, the aforementioned "Sneaky Feelin'" and "Song for Gerald Langley." Excited by what he heard, he sent them along to his friend and sometime <a href="spotify:artist:5uCoWhfakax3BqRFdimRuY">ESP Summer</a> bandmate Warren Defever, who has a day job mastering recordings at <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Third+Man%22">Third Man</a> HQ in Detroit. While Defever was playing back his work, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Third+Man%22">Third Man</a> label honcho Dave Buick heard and was blown away by the sounds. He decided to release the songs as a single and track down the rest of Magic Roundabout's recordings. The result of the search and reclamation project is Up, a six-track collection that jumbles the band's noise-damaged rockers, moody folk-fuzz janglers, and a nearly 20-minute-long experimental track that would do <a href="spotify:artist:0ReGrqp2iQLy9fySkDCIDh">Loop</a> proud. The album was released in September 2021 on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Third+Man%22">Third Man</a>. ~ Tim Sendra, Rovi