Magrathea are one of these bands that play in the oxymoronic "retro neo prog" style. This had come up through the weed out stack, as it seemed entirely unnecessary for me to possess such an album when I already have plenty of the real deal. Speaking of that, the irony here is that I just listened to one of those "real deal" bands (Twelfth Night), an early album which had nothing to do with the neo prog style.
As I was listening, I pretty much had convinced myself that my prophesy of it belonging to someone else would be fulfilled. But then I began to realize just how perfect this album is for the style it is emulating. I mean if Anglagard can ape 1973, then why can't Magrathea copy 1982? And that's really your story line here: This is a pitch perfect realization of the early 80s NWOBPR. And just as Anglagard represents the ideal verse the reality of the scene, so does Magrathea. Everything about this screams some obscure cassette that was sold through Lotus Records and some dive bars throughout London. The cover, the sound, the compositions. It's IQ, Tamarisk, and Lahost all wrapped up in a stencil drawing of some Grendel like creature up to no good. I don't need to load up on albums like this, but since it's already here, I see no reason not to keep it. It's neo prog extract of the finest kind.
Ownership: CD: 2004 private. Online acquisition (2017). The packaging is as basic as it gets, and I suspect that's by design.
7/2/17 (first listen); 11/14/22 (review/new entry)
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