As natives to both the digital world and the prog-rock scene, Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin, a.k.a. Magdalena Bay, are used to doing deep-dives into the maximalist side of things. The Miami-based duo smashes together a myriad of sounds and playfully gaudy visuals into a big, organized mess, and Imaginal Disk finds them at their most radical.
The group’s second studio album offers a confluence of ideas that allows for strange detours through a sonic hall of mirrors. Tracks like “Image,” with its modulating bassline and 4/4 kick drum, and “Love Is Everywhere,” which is marked by woozy Theremin, are loungey disco bops that feel like they were beamed in from a luxury space cruise liner.
Elsewhere, “Killing Time” seamlessly blends Tenenbaum and Lewin’s pop and prog instincts: While imminently danceable, the song boasts piano rolls and a classic guitar solo that place it somewhere on the dark side of the moon. Things get even weirder on “That’s My Floor,” which plays with pitch and tempo and features a wobbly synth bass solo and space lasers, while “Cry for Me” is a moody slow burn whose disco strings sound like “Thriller” on acid.
An examination of the relationship between love and pain, “Vampire in the Corner” serves as a showcase for Tenanbaum’s vocals, which strike a delicate balance between airy and hushed on the verses and theatrical intensity during the choruses. The song tells a story of not just loving someone no matter how much it hurts, but loving them because it hurts: “Someone call the coroner/’Cause you’re breaking my heart/My god, I think I mighta loved you too much.”
“Tunnel Vision,” the album’s five-minute centerpiece, presents a singular expression of what Magdalena Bay does so well. They practice relative restraint for the song’s first half, beginning with a lulling keyboard arpeggio that slowly nestles into your mind. But as the track gains momentum, the bottom falls out, giving way to wooshes of static and loose, uneasy drum fills. And just when it feels like it might fall apart, the track dives headfirst into a pounding synth rock epic with layers of swelling synths, chugging guitars, and incessant bass and drums.
Imaginal Disk does a total 180 on the penultimate track, the baroque-pop “Angel on a Satellite,” with a plaintive piano melody, some light hand percussion, and the crackle of a fire and the rumble of a distant storm. The album is bookended by a musical motif, a deceptively simple approach that proves that, despite its seemingly arbitrary twists and turns, the lengthy and ambitious Imaginal Disk is in fact heading somewhere.
Since 2001, we've brought you uncompromising, candid takes on the world of film, music, television, video games, theater, and more. Independently owned and operated publications like Slant have been hit hard in recent years, but we’re committed to keeping our content free and accessible—meaning no paywalls or fees.
If you like what we do, please consider subscribing to our Patreon or making a donation.
