Posted in Whathaveyou on March 24th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
South African heavy fuzzbringers Acid Magus find new clarity on their redo of “She is the Night” from 2021’s Wyrd Syster (review here). Trading out some of the drift of the original for lower tuning and a shorter runtime, the song is plenty catchy enough to warrant the other visit, and while the new version is a surprise less than a year after the album’s release, that they’d take on the task after seeing how “She is the Night” garnered an audience response in live shows isn’t a shock in the least. Righteous groove, rampant hook, nodding melody. If I was standing in front of a stage and this was coming off it, I’d be stoked too.
Don’t let me delay you. The official release is tomorrow, March 25, but basically because I asked, you can stream now at the bottom of this post. I’m not sure if this counts as a premiere or not, but screw it, either way you go the song rules, so go ahead and enjoy. I’ve also included the full stream of Wyrd Syster, which if you missed it in 2021 is a gem. Never too late.
Order link and PR wire info follow:
Psychedelic doomsters Acid Magus release redux version of Wyrd Syster single
SHE IS THE NIGHT (REDUX): https://orcd.co/sheisthenight_redux
Acid Magus released their debut album, Wyrd Syster on the 30th July 2021. Heaving with fuzzy guitars, fat bass lines and thunderous drums, as one has come to be expected from the four-piece. The release was extremely well received within the heavy music scene, garnering widespread attention from media and fans. Doom, Stoner, Punk, Psych, and Classic Rock are all common themes throughout the album.
The band recently decided to re-record the title track and second single from the album as guitarist Keenan Kinnear explains, “She is the Night was a bit of an afterthought when completing the album. When we finalized the vocals, we sat back and thought “wow, this is actually quite a powerful track!” The audience response to the song has also been very positive so we decided to give it the spotlight it deserves and re-recorded it from scratch in our newly adopted drop tuning and added a few bits to flesh it out somewhat. Once more, the inimitable Tyrone le Roux-Atterbury contributed an exclusive art piece further detailing the Wyrd Syster” from the original album art…”
Line Up: Keenan Kinnear: guitars Jarryd Wood: bass guitar Roelof van Tonder: drums Christiaan Van Renen: vocals
Posted in Questionnaire on December 31st, 2021 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Keenan Kinnear of Acid Magus
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I am assuming this question is aimed at my music, right? In that case, I would define what I do as bringing life to the incessant melodies and riffs meandering through my mind 24/7. If the question is aimed at what I do for a living, then the answer would be: Accountant.
I came to be an accountant because where I come from, university degrees and lifeless corporate placements are valued far more than the arts. At least as far as ‘successful career’ choices go. I was dead set on studying English Literature and Journalism when I matriculated (graduated from High School) but the world had other plans for me. Be that as it may, it is what it is and here I am, wracked by debt and anxiety, living the dream some might say. Brutal.
Enter music. My soul’s saviour!! After borrowing a drum kit at age 15 and basically giving my neighbours a daily crash course in the ‘Grohl method’ encompassing the entire Nirvana discography the bug bit and I was sold down a road of countless gear purchases, trial and error, and most importantly, the number 42.
Soon after drums, I picked up the guitar, then messed around with keyboards and other instruments. No formal training ever, just the dire and unending need to melt faces! The eureka moment came when I discovered audio interfaces, DAWs and mixing. This was the turning point in me taking my music seriously and working towards recording ‘the good shit’. After many years of even more trial and error in that area of the game, I find myself here, still wracked by debt and anxiety, living the dream some might say. Brutal.
Describe your first musical memory.
Driving around in my mother’s old Fiat as a kid headbanging and singing to some choice cuts from bands like AC/DC, Fine Young Cannibals and (this one is cringe AF but is a super important memory for me so back off) Modern Talking. I actually bought that Modern Talking LP a couple years back. Sometimes I get in the mood for a little “Brother Louie” when a couple beers have gone in.
My mother influenced my life in every way, but most importantly, her taste in music is probably the reason I make the music I make right now.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
Real talk. I’ve been skirting the local music scene for the last decade or so, either helping others out or attempting small projects myself to no avail etc. With Acid Magus, I put my mind to it and ended up releasing an album. That’s been a dream of mine for a long time, so I have to say that putting out my debut is my best musical memory to date. It is a personal achievement above all else and one that gives me immense joy.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
I am NOT a ‘covers’ guy, especially not when it comes to Acid Magus. Chris, our vocalist, regularly brings up the idea of covering some songs and it shakes me to the damn core every time! Chris, if you are reading this, NO!
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
Hopefully to Nirvana? Not the band of course, rather spiritual enlightenment. I mean, all the general ideas such as progression leads to growth and new, fresher art, etc. aside, music is a spiritual journey for me, it is the one thing that informs my awareness, it is the accelerator in my psyche. Every bar that awakes from within me and finds its place on a track on the DAW in front of me brings me closer to Nirvana. I’m not a Buddhist though… still just a boring accountant. Brutal.
How do you define success?
Society, and more specifically, ‘the haves’ have been telling us ‘have nots’ that success should be measured by relative happiness, not money and other material objects. I don’t know if it’s that simple. The best I can do is critically process the idea of success and for me personally, and I’m sure many other people out there too, money plays a big role man! Do I wish to be Jeff Bezos? No. Do I wish to have financial security? Yes. Will being a full-time musician get me that? Unlikely. We roll the dice every day, let’s rather focus on loving those we can count on with all that we are, the rest is moot.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
Game of Thrones Season 8… god…
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
A human being. For the longest time becoming a father has been the furthest thing from my mind, while right now it’s pretty much all I can think about it. Holding thumbs… my wife is going to hate me for putting this out there haha but maybe putting the intention out there in the universe will work in our favour?
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
The promotion of critical thinking. We are dumbed down and placated by reality television and social media. Art should challenge convention and get people to ask questions of themselves, the universe and everything in between.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
I am typing these answers out at the office, I am about to save and log off. I am very much looking forward to going home to my wife and cat. I guess it’s not that brutal after all…
Acid Magus release Wyrd Syster July 30 on Mongrel Records. Hardly a year after unveiling their first single and thereby exposing the lizard people of their native Pretoria, South Africa, heavy psychedelic four-piece Acid Magus bring forth Wyrd Syster as their debut full-length through countryman imprint Mongrel Records. It is duly tripped out, putting modern psych and garage-style heavy in a nebular swirl and sculpting the results into songs of varying length and intent, sometimes headed ‘out there’ in a fashion that reminds of Black Rainbows — looking at you, “Conscientious Pugilist” and “She is the Night” — and offering more weighted blowout heavy ethereality in its closing pair “Evil” and “Red Dawn,” the latter of which answers the shouts of “Rituals” earlier on as though to confirm that, no, their arising from all that wash of fuzz was not a dream, but a reality altered by the molten churn bent to the band’s will. Garage doom is a factor — Witch, Uncle Acid‘s melodious threat, etc. — but so is grunge, and there’s depth of mix to account for all of it as made earthbound by guitarist Keenan Kinnear, bassist Jarryd Wood, drummer Roelof van Tonder and vocalist Christiaan Van Renen. One way or the other, Wyrd Syster is the stuff of run-on sentences and mixed metaphor, clearly.
True, all things are fleeting, ephemeral, mortal, and some day the sun will swell to however many times its size, burn away the oceans and the atmosphere and eventually the rest of the planet itself. Nothing we as a species do or have ever done can possibly last or matter into such a scale of time. Can’t argue. Sooner or later, the bubble that is the universe itself may simply pop. But in the meantime, Acid Magus cull 44 minutes of deep-dive-ready, headphones-on fuzz-o-buzz, the riffs of the title-track leading the way with echo-drenched leads and a laid back hook delivery from Van Renen. The rhythm is a subtle charge, but it’s intermittent, coming and going amid drifting guitar and a more open verse, and spaciousness and atmosphere feel as much an essential facet of the band’s execution as does the lattice from which they launch, but “Wyrd Syster” is also only half a tell.
As the shortest inclusion — the interlude “Virgo” notwithstanding — on the album that bears its name, “Wyrd Syster” is as much a tease as it is an introduction to what follows, and there’s a marked shift as “Rituals” takes hold with riffage hypnotic and more patient in its flow, the rolling groove that starts out receding behind the central guitar line only to emerge again, massive, powerful, as the procession hits its payoff. For all the space the band have covered, they’ve only just begun, and “Conscientious Pugilist” follows with samples, a spaced-out wacky solo backed by room-emphasis drums leading to Sabbath crunch, start-stop-then-all-start shove and echoing screams and suddenly you get a better sense of why one might call the band “experimental.” It’s not so much about them playing their instruments upside down or making noise for noise’s sake — nothing wrong with that if that’s your thing — but there’s a sense of adventure in “Conscientious Pugilist” as the longest track on Wyrd Syster, and even in the moment to recover that the subsequent quiet stretch of “Virgo” represents as the record’s centerpiece, the impact of Acid Magus‘ outbounding is not to be understated. No lack of exploration for their carrying structure with them.
I’ll make it easy for you: If you’re not on board by the time they ooze into “She is the Night,” the rest will only be a slog, but for those who can get to it and those to whom it gets, side B of Wyrd Syster has plenty more delights of its own to offer, mirroring the shortest-to-longest setup of “Wyrd Syster,” “Rituals” and “Conscientious Pugilist,” but with “She is the Night” setting out from a place less initial than the opener (duh), benefiting from the altitude adjustment already wrought by Acid Magus on the tracks preceding. Like the title-track, “She is the Night” has a standout delivery of its titular lyric, and its guitar rings in ambient fashion, but the joy is the nod and layered movement that takes hold at the end, rumbling out to stillness eventually as all things must, but leaving that resonant guitar behind as an epilogue. “Evil” churns and writhes and seeps and careens through dynamic turns, coalescing around its groove as much as anything, and cutting off cold ahead of “Red Dawn” at the finish. I don’t think the closer is about the Patrick Swayze movie, but I’ve certainly been wrong before. The fuzz and the hey-man-what’s-wrong-aren’t-you-coming shove are reaffirmed early alongside a melodic highlight and given counterpoint in the slower march that arises, spaceborne and elephantine, to lead into the last fadeout with silence to spare at the end, more cosmic than kosmiche, but unfurling in the vacuum either way.
Whether or not you take the journey out the airlock with Acid Magus is ultimately up to you, but Wyrd Syster provides more than enough reach and breadth and resonance to justify the minimal effort in doing so. As their debut — if in fact it is — it shows a distinct chemistry taking shape within the familiar aspects of genre, and sees the band honing their persona out of the various elements and tropes with which they’re working. Consider yourself dared to give it a shot and see where it takes you.
Impassioned, epic, slow, and heavy; it’s all here as Acid Magus present their finest work to date.
In the faint light that separates dreams from reality, lies from truth and heaven from hell, lives the Acid Magus. Meditating, surrounded by darkness and light, energising the air with electric anticipation. Come forward and listen, stay awhile, there are no sins.
“For the first time the band have experimented with some low tuning, so expect octave drops and tempo changes. All the psych/stoner/doom vibes to be expected but once again, that alt rock accessibility lingers.” Comments guitarist Keenan Kinnear
Line Up: Keenan Kinnear: guitars Jarryd Wood: bass guitar Roelof van Tonder: drums Christiaan Van Renen: vocals
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 25th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Look, just stream the track. I could go on here about Acid Magus taking grunge rock and blasting it into a spaced-out shoegaze oblivion on Wyrd Syster, or talk about mountains and sunrise or whatever the hell, but I won’t pretend anyone gives a crap. What you need to know is that “Wyrd Syster” opens the four-piece’s debut album and sets the vibe tonally and melodically, but that in subsequent jams like “Rituals” or the particularly consuming “Conscientious Pugilist,” they get jammier, more cosmic and more daring, so that by the time “Red Dawn” quiets down in its second half, you just know that hit is coming back and then it does and it rules because glory glory rock and roll and all that happy mountain stuff. I can’t tell you how to live your life. I can tell you that if you track down this record when it comes out it’ll make your day better. What you do with that is up to you.
From the PR wire:
Acid Magus – Wyrd Syster – RELEASE DATE 30th JULY 2021
In the faint light that separates dreams from reality, lies from truth and heaven from hell, lives the Acid Magus. Meditating, surrounded by darkness and light, energising the air with electric anticipation. Come forward and listen, stay awhile, there are no sins…
Acid Magus is an experimental rock outfit from Pretoria, South Africa. Doom, stoner, punk, psych, and classic rock are all common themes. As huge fans of the rock greats (Zeppelin, Sabbath), stoner/desert rock behemoths (Kyuss, Sleep) as well as the tripped out psychedelic stylings of modern “psych” bands like Slift. Acid Magus take inspiration from all kinds of great music, spanning the entire gamut from 60s Hendrix/The Doors to Hawkwind and Scorpion at their heaviest, all the way to pretty much everything inspired by Black Sabbath today. All this with maybe a little Alt Rock sensibility thrown in for good measure. With an uncompromising, DIY approach to writing, Acid Magus promises to offer up only the best, most impassioned musical works. Long, slow, heavy, soft, it’s all there, and it comes from the heart…
Track Listing: 1. Wyrd Syster 2. Rituals 3. Conscientious Pugilist 4. Virgo 5. She Is The Night 6. Evil 7. Red Dawn
Line Up: Keenan Kinnear: guitars Jarryd Wood: bass guitar Roelof van Tonder: drums Christiaan Van Renen: vocals
