These compositions evoke a sense of musicality that is ethereal, delicate, and cosmically spacey. From having toured as a bassist for the likes of Mitski and Lady Lamb, while simultaneously being a part of the pen pin pop duo alongside Emily Moore, Magaña conveys a versatility that is harbored through her fluency in a myriad of various sound techniques. These clearly show in the diverse array of what Teeth has to offer. 

Teeth kicks off with “Garden”, starting with a simple strumming pattern, attributing to an ominous yet mellow rhythm scheme. As the lyrics state “I will plant those seeds tomorrow/Watch my garden grow,” this song makes for a warm welcome. Magaña sings this hymn like tune about developing something out of one’s own creation, much like how she had crafted this album as a pandemic project. Although the track is basic in essence, Magaña’s vocals redeem the piece by how earthy and dainty it sounds melody wise.

The next song “Beside You” immediately begins with a much more vibrant, uplifting harmony that is spearheaded by a tapping piano and guitar with heavy overdrive and distortion. In the foreground of the song, there’s a groovy bassline that despite its subtleness, is a prominent distinction that makes the song more enlivened and light in mood. As Magaña sings “The future’s unknown/And I’m worried about it too/But you’re not alone,” she expounds on ruminations toward uncertainty and doubt of what’s to come. This is all within the pretense of figuring out how to proceed and go on with one’s life moving forward. 

Following that, the track “Matter” promotes more chordal qualities as it sets out a complex composition that includes pounding drums, guiding the rest of the instruments toward a path of monumental build-up. In this one, Magaña exudes more conflictions in the lyrics as she cites “I swore that I would never be like my mother/With all the weight upon my back/But it won’t matter, does it matter if it’s bad?” It discusses the intricacies of dealing with one’s dynamic with another person. This feeling of being lost within a relationship is compared to drowning. 

The track “Paul” returns to a slower pace that is looming and gentle in flow and tempo. Magaña sings “Paul, where did you go/When it was driving you insane/And I remember where I was when they first told me/You took those pills to kill your pain.” This is while being accompanied by a roomy guitar, airy flute, crystalline piano, and tender humming. It touches on what is essentially a heartbreaking tale of someone who suffers from drug abuse. The line comes from someone who loves passionately, their story of fading away under the seam of marriage embarks on a bittersweet narrative. 

“Break Free” lets out more funky riffs and twisted, warped contortions of sound. Magaña sings about every day feeling similar and monotonous, placing emphasis on what it is like for one to want to escape their daily bubble, as they crave for something more. The adjacent track “I Feel Like Ice”, is more so an instrumental. A dialogue that emulates a robotic, static-ridden voice buzzes out the message of the song’s title highlighting sensations of isolation and loneliness when placed in a position remote from the rest of the world. 

This perfectly bleeds into “To My Love” which sits upon a bed of cozy, homey guitar, and organs seasoned with reverb and resonance. Eventually, the drums make the song more boosted, as trumpet and violin come in to make the musicality of the song more elegant and graceful than it already is. One might believe this to be a love song that alludes to a romance too profound to describe, and even perhaps, too deep to pursue. 

The song dubbed “In My Body” has the bass take the lead, with a piercing synthline entering at odd intervals. While Magaña sings “And I feel somehow less than human/I am in body/not just this body,” she explicates what is the emotion of dissociation and detachment from a person’s own grasp of self, as they navigate something significant that had previously defined them for the longest of times. For the connecting song “Bones”, a more chimeric piano enters the ear, as her vocals here are more layered. She states “I’m nothing but bone/Now I’m alone/I want to go home,” transmitting the inkling of emptiness and vacancy within one’s soul when found at a brink of near unconsciousness. 

“I Cannot Breathe” allows for punchy, buzzing synths rippling into effect, as Magaña says “I’m a savior in my dreams/But I never sleep,” and “I’m not standing in the rain/But I cannot breathe/I cannot see,” exploring the theme of being close to losing contact with reality. Towards its closure, the track includes a short sample that has blurry talking in the surrounding setting, like dissociating in a crowded room, full of foggy, fuzzed-out entities. 

The song “Afraid of Everybody” presents itself with wavy, meandering, and winding waves of timbre, which goes with the zestful, potent stretches of striking drums. The clean, soft piano creates a serene symphony. The song promotes sensibilities toward questions of identity and finding oneself through experimentation and discovery. It generally lays commentary on what it’s like to feel alien, much like an anomaly. 

The subsequent track “Mary Anne” incorporates more hollow and wispy feelings, paired with balmy, peaceful guitar. The track communicates to another person who drags other people into their own struggles, having the pain be endured together. This song is raw and unfiltered, as it permits the gnawing sounds of the recording and of Magaña’s breaths in between lyrics to pervade the audio with no remorse.

“xxo” is an instrumental track of cyber computer sounds that preamble the closing track “Girl in Chains”, which makes for an ever devil-may-care exit with jaunty, breezy synth lines that convey the feeling of being set free and letting loose. As Magaña sings “I am just a girl in chains/Waiting for the spell to break,” one can see that she musters up the courage to confront her demons head-on, with the confession first. This is what most of Teeth is, a testimony to one’s bravery in facing what they have always feared, and trying to find a way to escape from one’s own isolation.

The post Track by Track Review of Magana’s “Teeth”  appeared first on KRUI Radio.

“Faust is here. Are you kidding me? Faust is here!” said a very excited lady standing right next to me as we waited for Faust, the German Krautrock band to take the stage. Faust had formed in the 70’s, split up, and then returned as two separate bands. The one that I saw on the rainy night of April the 5th was not at all what I expected. However, before I could listen to Faust, I listened to their two openers, Bob Bucko Jr. and Mamiffer.

What I thought was going to be the longest night of life ended up being not so bad. I showed up at Gabe’s pretty early and I sat down at one of the tables and waited. Since I was already not sure how this night was going to go I kept looking at the time. When it finally turned 8:00 I waited for Bob Bucko Jr to start his set. Bob took forever to

actually start. Okay… it was 10 minutes. Bob walked up and just started playing like it was no big deal. As I sat at my table and listened to Bob Bucko Jr. I couldn’t stop staring at the video that was placed next to him. Which to be fair was probably his purpose. While I did think that Bob was talented his style of music isn’t for me mainly due to the fact that during his entire set he didn’t sing many words and I need words in my music. The crowd however was all about Bob Bucko Jr. They stared intently at the video and at him. They nodded their heads to the beat of his music. One guy even had his eyes closed and was swaying from side to side.

After Bob Bucko Jr finished his set, Mamiffer took the stage. Now with them, I thought they were talented but I

didn’t really like their music. Mainly because for the first 10 minutes, it sounded like static or like a plane. Frankly I’m still debating, with little interjects of guitar and what I think was a bass. The band consists of three performers, two guys and one girl. When the girl finally started singing I couldn’t understand a word she said. Also, during their entire set they stayed at the same pace the entire time and I couldn’t handle that.

The crowd on the other hand was doing pretty much the same thing that they had been doing during Bob Bucko Jr’s set, only there were more people. About half of the crowd had their eyes closed as they swayed back and forth and the other half had their eyes open but they were still swaying back and forth. Both Bob Bucko J0.r and Mamiffer are talented and they weren’t as bad as I had thought they would be.

By the time Mamiffer had ended their set, the crowd had grown to pretty much the entire upstairs part of Gabe’s. I decided to get closer to the stage so I could pictures, but my camera was being dumb and my phone isn’t that great so I decided to not give a terrible impression to not show the pictures or videos I took (they look really bad). Anyway, as I got up from the table I heard a guy say, “I’ve seen them before. They’re good but they’re not awesome.”

However almost immediately after he said that, I ended up in front the lady who was extremely excited at the fact that Faust was there.

As the band, consisting of Jean-Herve Peron, Werner Diermaier, and Maxime Manac’h, took the stage I listened to what people around me were saying. Other than the more commonly phrase, “This is going to be great.” I heard “You never know what they’re going to do” and “They have instruments that I didn’t even know about.” Finally JHP started talking and pretty much after anything he said it got huge cheers from the crowd. Then he said, “Thank you for your smiles and the sparkles in your eyes” I was curious so I looked and about 95% of the audience (of what I could see) had smiles and sparkles in their eyes.  I had a feeling that no matter what the band did that crowd would have still applauded them.

They got started and I wanted to leave. They started out with a slow song similar to what both Bob Bucko Jr. and Mammifer had done and I couldn’t handle it. Don’t get me wrong, they had talent but I didn’t want to listen to two hours of the same things that I had listened to for two hours before.

Thankfully, they picked up the pace and the rock and electronic music began. I like fast-paced music so for me, this was glorious. The rest of the concert slowed down as the night progressed but it wasn’t like the other two performances. Mainly because at one point they had a jackhammer on stage and for another song they went into the crowd and had the entire crowd singing along with them (I got to touch Maxime. He seemed nice).  Faust has existed in one way or another for many years and it was clear why.

Before April 5th if you had asked me what I thought of Faust I would have said “eh.” After April 5th, I’ll be saying, ” They’re good, really good.”

The post Mission Creek: Faust @ Gabe’s 4/5/2016 appeared first on KRUI Radio.