General Magic — Softbop

General Magic have returned to tickle and tease eardrums with their newest EP, Softbop. The frantic and hard to pin down duo of Andi Pieper and Ramon Bauer have been off for nearly two decades, but triumphantly descend upon eager ears with this seven-song release. Quick beats and bright electronics flesh out Softbop as something post-dance, or a work that is built for hip robots. Utilizing this loose framework, General Magic craft an engaging and fun EP that bears repeated spins. 

Squeezing and squeaking in softly, Softbop is an unexpected recording from the jump. Quickly changing gears from "Pflichtintro" into the drum-sample fueled, frenetic "Prototipo," General Magic shows they will keep listeners on their ears and quickly change their direction at the drop of a hat. WIth this approach in mind, GM constructed very short songs to help complete this aim. Using various forms of electronics and oscillation, General Magic adds enough percussive texture to their songs to keep each moving quickly forward on its own and make its way from Point A to Point B in the abbreviated run times. The second half of the album shows Softbop coming together more cohesively with longer tracks built and structured closer to full-length songs ("Mosaïque" and "I was no" come in over 3 minutes each). These highlight General Magic's fast-paced approach to song structure and help to elucidate the previous tracks a bit more. While they're songs on this EP, they may most likely be the beginnings of possible longer tracks that just weren't fleshed out. With that in mind, it's interesting to see Softbop as somewhat of a window into General Magic's process and a glimpse at how they put longer songs together.

Short but sweet, Softbop heralds the return of General Magic, even if for a little bit. With the release of this EP, they have a couple of shows planned with Tina Frank, so this is a wonderful taste of what's to come. It may not be enough to slake fans' thirsts after their extended time off, however it could also be the harbinger of much more new material to come. Checking it out for yourself