It’s been 20 years since the whip-smart duo known as General Magic released a full-length album. Need one ponder over what exactly took them so long, or all of the world-historical, not to mention personal, changes that have taken place over the preceding two decades? I hope not, and there is nothing in the 9 tracks that make up this release to suggest that General Magic, or us listeners, would be rewarded for waxing nostalgic. Instead, something more macabre and perverse is at stake here, which has more to do with a kind of vampiric blood-sucking of the present via its past, including the group’s own. It would be easy to herald such musical reappearances as a second coming, but not so fast. The end of history is also the near-claustrophobic proximity to death, and the magic that this duo spin is something only those who once cut their teeth on the heady, self-congratulatory gestures of the postmodern could translate to the laudenum of our age.
None of this really says much about the playlist-like journey across musical genres and techniques on Nein Aber Ja, which proves that while they haven’t released much since 2003, General Magic have been listening. A standout, if placing preference here is not too old hat, is “Unsinn Zukunft”, which roughly translates to “nonsense future.” The track begins with a clicky, acid-style pulsating beat reminiscent of Alec Empire, and then goes, well, nowhere. This is the restless drive of Thanatos, no love parades in sight. Just the same, over and over, until every bit of marrow has been turned to shit, which, of course, is where it will all end up anyway, why bother getting choked up over it? 20 years in not nothing in the course of a life. There is nothing melancholic about Nein Aber Ja, and General Magic’s sensibility is spot on. The closest we come is the purposefully affect-hungry “Dead in the Street, and Starved”, which sounds like a blues for Berghain instead of Pablo. Much that might be superficially grating about Nein Aber Ja quickly turns into moments of outright laughter, remembering that pedigree is just the brand of a dog food and not something one can boast of in the face of TikTok. Ok, Boomer!
For those who enjoy deconstructed, acerbic, musical humor and gloriously-flaunted bad taste. And for the kids who wonder what all of the old dudes are thinking. No, nobody cares about that!. To find out
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