Magik Markers "Surrender" Their Craft

With 12 years under their belt, one might expect noise band Magik Markers to have come a long way from its humble beginnings in a basement in Hartford, Conn. After breaking out of the underground scene when they opened for Sonic Youth’s 2004 tour, they released their first album "I Trust My Guitar, Etc..." on vinyl. While the group has become technologically more mainstream, releasing over 25 CDs and MP3s, Magik Markers’ music has stayed disappointingly close to its roots. In its most recent release, "Surrender to the Fantasy," the experimental rock band regresses to its garage beginnings—instead of showing progress from the early days, "Surrender to the Fantasy" gets lost in the dusty discordance of the past.

The opening chords of the album immediately set the feel of "Surrender to the Fantasy." They are dissonant and jarring, yet syncopated and steady. The jumbled pounding of a guitar, bass, and drum kit comes in unrelenting waves, one after another, assaulting ears with its mixture of seconds and sevenths—chords normally used sparingly in musical compositions. While this style is unusual even in its first appearance on opening track "Crebs," it continues to haunt the subsequent songs on "Surrender to the Fantasy." Although songs such as "Acts of Desperation" and "American Sphinx Face" begin more conventionally with the strumming of a guitar or a gentle buzz of reverb, they evolve to adopt the discordance that drowns the musicality in Magik Markers’ signature noise.

Amid the percussive chaos, static, and synthesizers are the quiet, soothing tones of Magik Markers’ vocalist, Elisa Ambrogio. Ambrogio’s melody is often times lost in the confusion of sound backing her calming voice. Her words fall in what always seems to be the wrong place—a half a beat ahead or a second behind the instrumentalists. However this is more likely the fault of the musicians as they all seem to be playing to contrary beats. Nonetheless, there are moments when the storm of ruckus dies down and the beauty of Ambrogio’s light voice is evident. The bridge of "Acts of Desperation" drops the static and leaves Ambrogio’s voice exposed as she sings "These acts of desperation pay," over and over again, lending emotion to each line and giving some structure and meaning to the racket.

Though quiet tracks are rare for a noise band like Magik Markers, they are the only redeeming moments of "Surrender to the Fantasy." "Mirrorless" and "Young" shine among the nine songs, as they offer an escape from the headache-inducing dissonance. Without the heavy drum kit that pounds throughout the majority of the tracks, Magik Markers capture a melancholic, eerie, yet thought-provoking feel. Finally, lyrics are audible and, it turns out, Ambrogio’s writing is rather profound. She whispers "The worst part of being young is thinking nothing, thinking nothing ever comes" on "Young." While the clean tracks "Mirrorless" and "Young" may not be representative of Magik Markers’ purpose as a noise band, it is in these understated songs that their musicality emerges from the chaos.

After working on "Surrender to the Fantasy" on and off for the past four years, Magik Markers achieved their goal of releasing an unconventional album partially recorded back in the basement. In doing so, however, they sacrifice quality for layered synth and aimless chanting. Its few quiet, soothing songs cannot save the album from the black hole of static and conflict created by the chugging guitar riffs and lack of structure of the rest of the album. The influx of cacophony only detracts from Ambrogio’s vocal strength and lyrical prowess. the album’s last song,"WT," perfectly sums up the album: a drum beats slowly, dragging behind as a guitar and synthesizer clash against one another, and even the usually stellar Ambrogio sings lazily and carelessly over the commotion. Perhaps next time, Magik Markers should focus less on making a loud noise and more on making a musical one.