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MAGICK BROTHER & MYSTIC SISTER

Psychedelic/Space Rock • Spain


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Magick Brother & Mystic Sister biography
MAGICK BROTHER AND MYSTIC SISTER are a Barcelona based band who take their name from a Gong album. While they are certainly psyche spacey their main influence is probably "If I Could..." era Caravan. They trace their origin story back to 2000 when Eva (keyboards/vocals) and Xavi (bass/guitar) met Daevid Allen at a Canterbury festival where Gong, Caravan and Arthur Brown were playing. Their debut album has a very retro sixties sound heavily featuring flute and mellotron. They were joined in 2013 by Maya (flute) and Marc (drums) to make up the band complete as a four piece.

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MAGICK BROTHER & MYSTIC SISTER discography


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MAGICK BROTHER & MYSTIC SISTER top albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

4.04 | 105 ratings
Magick Brother & Mystic Sister
2020
4.21 | 64 ratings
Tarot, Part I
2024
3.47 | 17 ratings
Tarot, Part II
2024

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MAGICK BROTHER & MYSTIC SISTER Reviews


Showing last 10 reviews only
 Tarot, Part I by MAGICK BROTHER & MYSTIC SISTER album cover Studio Album, 2024
4.21 | 64 ratings

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Tarot, Part I
Magick Brother & Mystic Sister Psychedelic/Space Rock

Review by Mellotron Storm
Prog Reviewer

4 stars 4.5 stars. MAGICK BROTHER & MYSTIC SISTER became a four piece in 2013, and that four piece wold release their debut in 2020. This band is from Spain, and they play a spacey brand of psychedelia with male and female vocals. It's interesting that they drop to a trio on this their second album "Tarot Part I", and some 8 months later they release "Tarot Part II" as a duo with no guests.

So two albums in one year but it completes the subject of Tarot cards. And while I'm not into this subject it certainly is interesting as a concept album. I really appreciated Walter Wegmuller's "Tarot" album from the early seventies. Walter was an artist and he painted his own Tarot cards, plus he was an expert on the subject. A huge inspiration for Xavi and Eva our two main players here was Daevid Allen. And meeting him at a music festival must have been a dream come true.

So yes they name themselves after the opening song on GONG's debut "Magick Brother" from 1969, but switch the order of the names. And while my favourite psychedelic band from Spain is ATIVISMO, I have to admit this band is approaching that level with this record. Mind you the music here has more in common with SATURNIA, from neighbouring Portugal. Eva is the keyboardist and main singer while Xavi plays the stringed instruments. Some guests add spoken words, percussion, sitar and flute.

The opener "The Fool" after a spacey start kicks in with a catchy rhythm. A great opener actually as it's catchy, melodic, and it moves with some pace. Some acid guitar before 3 minutes. A trippy track. "The Magician" really shows this bands stripes. The spoken words, the piano, the depth of sound, the atmosphere. So drifting at times with the synths helping with that. "The High Priestess" opens with piano and guitar expressions bringing to mind Conny Veit and POPOL VUH. There will be a lot more of this on the next track. I like the mandolin on here and really there's lots of beautiful sounds on this track.

"The Empress" sounds like a lost POPOL VUH song because of the guitar mostly. So refreshing to hear this though. Mellotron, spoken words and more. "The Emperor" like the opener adds some energy to this record. "The Hierophant" is a cool tune with that sitar. More sitar on "The Lover" along with synths, mellotron, guitar and organ. I really like the flute on the next track "The Chariot", and also on "The Justice" which is my favourite song overall. A bass line to start the latter as drums arrive, and I really like this. Flute then vocals. Almost a jazz vibe here.

"The Hermit" is different, of course. It's an instrumental that sort of breathes in and out with guitar, synths and mellotron. Lastly we get "The Wheel Of Fortune" which had to inspire Vanna right? I'm not sure why I'm not hitting the five stars here, but 4.5 stars rounded down for now. And for sure this will rank high in my top ten or so of 2024.

 Tarot, Part I by MAGICK BROTHER & MYSTIC SISTER album cover Studio Album, 2024
4.21 | 64 ratings

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Tarot, Part I
Magick Brother & Mystic Sister Psychedelic/Space Rock

Review by ProggyGoose62

4 stars Phenomenal album. So many influences I hear: Canterbury a la Gong and Caravan, David Axelrod theatrics, Hackett from Acolyte, Popol Vuh, Khan, Hillage, and a bit of Traffic. Throw in modern Kruanghbin and what you have is accessible yet intricate "Space Rock" that knows no boundaries and clearly has an early 70s feel. It's just one amazing track after another. Honestly I am a bit gobsmacked. Get out your wine and weed and take a trip! This does for 70s space rock what Kosmischer Laufer does for Neu! Krautrock style. No bad tracks. The production is very clean but also very warm. 4.5 stars really!
 Tarot, Part II by MAGICK BROTHER & MYSTIC SISTER album cover Studio Album, 2024
3.47 | 17 ratings

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Tarot, Part II
Magick Brother & Mystic Sister Psychedelic/Space Rock

Review by BrufordFreak
Collaborator Honorary Collaborator

3 stars The Barcelona Canterbury Psi-Funk band's second studio album release of 2024, this one from November 22.

1. "Strength" (5:05) some of Eva's sultry pagan poetry played over Ozrics-infused funky psychedelic rock that sounds as if it were a cover of a classic 1960s pop song. Nice lead guitar solo from guest Tony Jagqar in the fourth minute. The presence of creepy Fender Rhodes and sitar add to the occult-esoteric mystique. A charming, promising, top three song. (9/10)

2. "The Hanged Man" (3:31) a percussion-entrenched instrumental that moves through two or three parts with layers of synths and heavily-treated piano washing over the top. (8.75/10)

3. "The Unnamed Arcane" (3:25) an instrumental that was resuscitated from the cutting floor of Tarot, Part I. (8.7/10)

4. "The Temperance" (4:26) another throwaway instrumental that they forgot to throwaway. (8.7/10)

5. "The Devil" (3:23) trying to inflect a little Zeuhl into the Canterbury soundscape? In the third minute Eva's spoken voice reverberates like a 1970s Elvira casting spells. (8.75/10)

6. "The Tower" (3:16) now back to the 1960s--like something from a female-fronted psychedelic rock band like the or Ultimate Spinach, It's A Beautiful Day, Pan & Regaliz, Carol Of Harvest, Earth And Fire, or perhaps Jefferson Airplane. (8.875/10)

7. "The Star" (5:00) a spacey New Age Gong or Steve Hillage song. Lots of Ozric bubbles, erps, stretchy weirditudes and oolite plurnies with and gentle keyboard and guitar apreggi floating around in and around the soundscape. A top three song. (9/10)

8. "The Moon" (5:54) Eva's vocoder voice with more soft-core Ozric-Gong-Hillage sounds built over a straight 1965 psychedelic rock foundation. (8.75/10)

9. "The Sun" (4:42) a decently constructed 1960s pop song with great bass play, Mellotron, and heavily treated (and nicely arranged) vocals from both Xavi and Eva singing in unison. Lead guitar in the fourth minute is performed by guest Tony Jagwar. My final top three song. (8.875/10)

10. "The Judgement" (5:56) sitar and acoustic guitars and dreamy ethereal female whispervocals dominate this simple almost-Prog Folk song. Sounds a lot like the music that Mediæval Bæbes' Katharine Blake continues to make. (8.875/10)

11. "The World" (7:12) another pointless, meandering, needlessly drawn out pseudo-POPOL VUH-like jam with strummed and picked acoustic guitars, sitar, treated piano, and heavily-reverbed female vocalese (mostly aaah's) that achieves non of the transportive/transcendent effect of Florian Fricke's ground-breaking band. (12.75/15)

Total Time 51:50

While still of excellent sound quality and very consistent in terms of sound and stylings when compared to Tarot, Part I, the music here feels more "supplemental," less developed, polished, and/or finished. There are far more minutes of instrumental music--a lot of it what feel like "background msuic" jams--and less of Eva's wonderful vocal stylings and arrangements. Where Xavi and Eva rushed to get this out to the public? Was this really the finished product they wanted to share with their admiring audience? After the delightfully high quality and consistency of Tarot, Part I--on which the band felt like it had grown (since their self-titled 2020 debut)--I had expectations for Part II that are here sharply disappointed.

B/four stars; a decent collection of what feels like unfinished psychedelic covers of classic 1960s hit songs.

 Tarot, Part I by MAGICK BROTHER & MYSTIC SISTER album cover Studio Album, 2024
4.21 | 64 ratings

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Tarot, Part I
Magick Brother & Mystic Sister Psychedelic/Space Rock

Review by siLLy puPPy
Special Collaborator PSIKE, JRF/Canterbury, P Metal, Eclectic

4 stars These cosmic trippers emerged from the Barcelona psychedelic scene in 2013. After having named themselves after the first song on the very first Gong album that was released back in 1970, MAGICK BROTHER AND MYSTIC SISTER has revived those early psychedelic Canterbury sounds by looking back to the wild and lysergic 60s for inspiration and developing a sound that absolutely nails the zeitgeist of those freewheelin' years when cosmic visions and astral dreams permeated the youth culture. Basically the trio of Evan Muntada who handles keys, piano and mellotron along with Xavi Sandoval who tackles bass, drums, mandolin, sitar and other stringed instruments. The main duo is joined by drummer Alejandro Carmona and a handful of guest musicians who add some flute, percussion, spoken word moments and even more sitar! It's like a classic Daevid Allen and Gili Smyth party in raga rock land along with all the best hippie vibes at the gleeful glissando gala!

The band caught the attention of the psych freaks in 2020 with its debut release and its spellbinding mystic stylistic approach that sounds like it traveled from another time and place. These cosmic trippers are back for round two with the 2024 release TAROT, PART I which draws inspiration from the Major Arcana of the TAROT, a concept i haven't heard from since Walter Wegmüller's 1973 psychedelic Krautrock journey. TAROT, PART I features 11 tracks which constitute only half of the 22 cards of the TAROT which means we will definitely see a PART II coming soon to an astral plane near you! Crafting a true sense of legit psychedelia MAGICK BROTHER AND MYSTIC SISTER delivers the goods in fine form with nods to not only Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth in their peak Gong years but also to Steve Hillage and his glissando guitar playing as well as some of the more psych folk bands of yore with moments that vaguely remind of Comus, Arco Iris, Tomorrow's Gift and a whole slew of psych folk / rock dabblers of the trade.

Traversing the first half of the TAROT, the album opens with the groovy "The Fool" which slowly slinks into your consciousness and then bedazzles you with psych-soaked keyboards and mellotrons and mesmerizing bass lines that hypnotize your soul and take you to the party section of the astral world where all your anxieties will dissipate into the ether. "The Magician" follows with a far out poetic prose accompanied by arpeggiate piano rolls and spaced out atmospheres and rock bass thumping with busy percussion. The band masters the seamless transitions between more energetic rock passages and dreamy float away escapism with swirling synthesizers and guitar glissando not heard since classic Gong days. "The High Priestess" on the other hand showcases Eva Muntada's siren-esque vocals as she becomes one with the ethereal and generates a Cocteau Twin like style of dream prog. "The Empress" jumps back into the raga motifs with sitar sounds and then off to space on a mellifluous journey into the stars.

"The Emperor" steps off the Gong train for a while to tackle the more classic Canterbury jazz sounds with references to classic Soft Machine and Egg but then re-enters Gong paradise with one of those tripped out sound collages with a cosmic narration before jumping back into the Mike Ratledge keyboard runs. And then back to raga world on "The Hierophant" before that track morphs into a beefy bass driven rocker that offers the perfect raga rock album of the album. "The Lover" is a more sensual affair with a spaciness and melody that reminds me of the "Moon Safari" album by the French band Air at least before it morphs into a classical Indian musical motif with tablas and more sitar. "The Chariot" offers the most rocked out performances with heavy guitars, thumping bass grooves and even guitar soloing. "The Justice" adds a bit more Canterbury key magic while "The Hermit" generates a more subdued loner vibe like the soundtrack of a lost soul in a cavern contemplating the existential quandaries of the universe. The closing "The Wheel Of Fortune" offers a touch of psych folk to bring you back to Earth for a little grounding.

There are quite a few retro bands trying to rekindle those lost escapist paradise sounds of the past but few have done so quite as convincingly as MAGICK BROTHER AND MYSTIC SISTER who studied the early Gong playbook without missing a beat and delivered a fantastic sonic journey into the ethereal and esoteric realms of the occult by dishing out a musical accompaniment to everyone's favorite metaphysical pastime, the TAROT. The album is graced with an incessant lysergia that keeps your astral body floating above your corporeal existence and takes you directly to the shamanic sermon in some parallel dimension. While psychedelic is a constant, each track dedicated to a card in the TAROT delivers a distinct style that keeps the album flowing and interesting. The accessible psychedelic pop hooks mixed with the koschmische Krautish ethereal ambience allow for perfect bed fellows and one of the most authentic 60s prog psych rock and folk albums i've heard in a long time. Wow! Spain is really killin' it this year with its prog. Yet another winner.

 Tarot, Part I by MAGICK BROTHER & MYSTIC SISTER album cover Studio Album, 2024
4.21 | 64 ratings

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Tarot, Part I
Magick Brother & Mystic Sister Psychedelic/Space Rock

Review by BrufordFreak
Collaborator Honorary Collaborator

5 stars The Neo-Canterbury band from Catalán is back with their sophomore album--and I'm so excited. (Their 2020 self-titled debut, is one of my top 5 favorite albums of the 2020s, so far.)

1. "The Fool" (5:39) great bass with a bit of a mix of THE BEATLES' "Tomorrow Never Knows" and ALAN PARSONS PROJECT feel with their uses of panned synthesizers, reversed lead guitar, and vocoder, respectively. Once the vocals, drums, and chugging rhythm guitar join in, it becomes more like a psychedelic song from someone like The PRETTY THINGS on S.F. Sorrow or GENESIS' first album or, from the 21st Century, WEST INDIAN GIRL. Very warm and inviting. (8.875/10)

2. "The Wizard" (3:05) male vocal recitation over the spacey opening, but then piano, drums, and bass take us into a more psych-rock motif before switching over to a very NEKTAR-like passage starting at 1:25. This is excellent psychedelia! Too bad it doesn't have more of a "finished" quality to it. (9/10)

3. "The High Priestess" (3:38) dreamy female vocals (many tracks) with some Baroque instrumentation beneath. Very beautiful--and so Sixties-ish! The vocal arrangements could rival anything from THE MAMAS & THE PAPAS, STEELEYE SPAN, or MELLOW CANDLE (or, in the 21st Century, The MEDIÆVAL BÆBES). Eva Muntada's vocal arrangements are amazing! (9.5/10)

4. "The Empress" (3:42) more dreamy, floating vocals over more normal folk-rock-like instrument palette. I am so impressed with Eva's amazingly etheric vocal layering! It's so Siren-like in its calm and ultra-confident allure. Whale-like lead guitar arrives in the third minute. Nice! And thank you, Maddy Gray, for those seductive words to finish! (9.125/10)

5. "The Emperor" (2:52) a little more reminiscent of the band's first album, the rich palette of Fender Rhodes, thick bass, "distant" horn synth, and fuzz guitar make for a wonderfully alluring sound. The spoken voice of Dominic O'Dair fills the pause in the middle with pertinent descriptors and nouns from the lexicon of the Tarot world. (9.125/10)

6. "The Hierophant" (3:21) guest Tony Jagwar's searing sitar soloing over fast-rocking bass and drums and hypnotic floating waves of synths! This reminds me of KULA SHAKER at their absolute best! Xavi Sandoval is the listener's champion: he makes his bass sound and lines so infectious! (9.5/10)

7. "The Lover" (3:21) Mellotron and keyboard bells (and distant flute) make for a very dreamy, Days of Future Passed- like soundscape. Then harpsichord takes over to back the angelic multi-tracked voices of Eva Muntada before the music switches to pure Indian with Didac Ruiz' tabla play and Xavi's sitar. Unexpectedly fragmented but it all works! It is an amazing cross-cultural view of the cosmic phenomenon we call "love"! (9.125/10)

8. "The Chariot" (3:06) more bass-led music that could very well have come from the band's debut album, Xavi, Alejandro, and Eva create a wonderful groove over which wah-ed lead gutar, flute, and organ take turns soloing. I love the flanged drums! Great tune! Xavi's electric guitar really cooks in that 30 seconds! This one reminds me very much of something from Devonshire band MAGIC BUS. (9.25/10)

9. "The Justice" (4:56) Xavi's great bass, front and center, seducing us from his first notes, with reverbed drums and piano and dreamy 1960s flute open this one before Eva's balmy vocals--in a lower register--come in to sing us her folk wisdom. Great pop-jazziness to this one. Should/could be a hit! Eva's Mellotron and Xavi's heavily-effected chorused lead guitar come in with about a minute to go but it's 'tron and flute that take us to the end fade. Wow! A perfect song! (10/10)

10. "The Hermit" (3:11) floating strummed guitar chords with matching lead guitar notes and Mellotron male voices open this instrumental like some kind of Steve Hackett impressionistic piece. More vocals and heavily-flanged cymbal play join in during the second half. Great atmosphere with a very mystical result. (8.875/10)

11. "The Wheel of Fortune" (4:21) lightly-flanged 12-string pickings for an intro before the music shifts into a psychedelic pop waltz with Glenn Brigman's dreamy DONOVAN-like flanged voice singing. It's so Sixties dreamy Psychedelic Pop! Masterful! Even the rising chord progression that carries the song has something magically mind- altering to it! Absolutely, astonishingly wonderful! (9.5/10)

Total Time 41:12

The band has definitely chosen to proceed down the more space/psychedelic form of Canterbury that Daevid Allen, Steve Hillage, Pierre Moerlin, and Gillie Smyth travelled over their careers--maybe even moreso! I have to agree with fellow reviewers that this is one of the finest collections of Neo-1960s-Psychedelia that I've heard--and that it surely qualifies of one of 2024's prog masterpieces!

A/five stars; a minor masterpiece of wonderfully-suggestive Canterbury-tinged Space/Psychedelic prog.

 Tarot, Part I by MAGICK BROTHER & MYSTIC SISTER album cover Studio Album, 2024
4.21 | 64 ratings

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Tarot, Part I
Magick Brother & Mystic Sister Psychedelic/Space Rock

Review by Progfan97402
Prog Reviewer

5 stars I was certain Magick Brother & Mystic Sister were one and done and have disappeared. I'm glad to see that wasn't the truth. I know COVID greatly affected many bands, Magick Brother & Mystic Sister included. It also seems they went through a lineup change, Marc Tena departing, with a new drummer, Alejandro Carmona replacing him, and flautist Maya Fernandez listed now as a guest (I believe that's due to Marc's departure). Eva Muntada and Xavi Sandoval are still there. It's 2024 and their second album Tarot Part I is nothing short of a masterpiece! Alejandro Carmona seems to have a more rock-approach to his drumming (Marc's drumming was more jazzy), so that means the music has less of that jazz-influence, but that really doesn't matter as they took that psych and prog sound to the next level, with a more pastoral and frequently spacy approach than before. Tarot Part I is simply some of the finest modern-day psych music I have ever heard! I could even imagine those who grew up in the 1960s appreciating this. "The Fool" has some really nice use of vocoder, which is unusual for psych, but it goes great with the nice vocals. "The High Priestess" is more in the psychedelic folk vein, largely acoustic. "Battle of Evermore" from Zeppelin is what this song reminds me of. Of course you don't have Robert Plant with Sandy Denny, but you do have the nice ethereal vocals from Eva Muntada. "The Emperor" has that same vibe as the 1967 Elektra album The Zodiac - Cosmic Sounds. It even has similar spoken dialog. "The Hermit" has that strange ethereal vocal in a psych setting, while "The Wheel of Fortune" starts off a bit on the folk side, but then gets proggy at the end with a dramatic Mellotron passage. So, while I don't get much of a Soft Machine vibe this time around, the occasional reminders of The Zodiac - Cosmic Sounds (turns out that Eva loves that album, so I'm sure the vibe of that album on "The Emperor" was intentional), acoustic Zeppelin, Ultimate Spinach (particularly "Pamela" from their self-entitled debut), and psych in general, is what I do notice. There is that MB&MS style, most particularly with Eva Muntada who does actual singing, but still does her ethereal wordless voices as well.

I didn't quite pay close attention to interviews by members of this group, but back in 2020 when they released their debut, they were already hinting at recording music inspired by the Tarot. I'm certain if it weren't for COVID, I would have seen the Tarot albums likely surfacing around 2022 but that didn't happen, for obvious reasons. Tarot I is simply some of the finest modern-day retro-psych I have ever heard! The second installment will appear on November 22, 2024. I saw some articles stating the second installment would appear within a couple of months after the first, but that never happened, and that was probably a bit unrealistic (record pressing plants are more backlogged than ever, that's why albums take longer to be released after they were recorded). Tarot Part I is everything I imagine the band going for that follow-up. They simply upped the ante for some of the finest psych and prog going these days and this album deserves no less than a five star rating!

 Magick Brother & Mystic Sister by MAGICK BROTHER & MYSTIC SISTER album cover Studio Album, 2020
4.04 | 105 ratings

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Magick Brother & Mystic Sister
Magick Brother & Mystic Sister Psychedelic/Space Rock

Review by Beautiful Scarlet

3 stars 3/5*, great debut.

Surprisingly not to Gong-like. I mean yeah it sounds a bit like Gong but not as much as I expected for a band that has named their album/band/songs after Gongs work. The female vocals are nice, echoey and lovely. The male vocals I find rather meh, with their west coast psych vibe not going well with the more European sound of Magick Brother & Mystic Sister. The songs are all a bit spacey due to the synths coating the tunes in atmosphere. Drums are sparse but this gives more rhythmic attention to the bass which really feels important throughout the album. Guitar strums lackadaisically, at times providing a little lick when required and Flute supplies gentle lead. I like that every song sounds sufficiently alike to make a cohesive album without sounding monotonous and how the songs are rhythmically driven with leads feeling like the basses support.

Overall this is a good album that manages to succeed in not sounding like a clone of any classic band, instead they've achieved an authentic blend that allows to genuinely pass as a forgotten artifact. I would definitely like to see a follow up with expanded songs and no more of the dude singing.

Canterbury Sound Score 3/5 cuz itz too psych n not jazzy riff salad enuf' but sum t stuff on-point so ye 3/5

 Magick Brother & Mystic Sister by MAGICK BROTHER & MYSTIC SISTER album cover Studio Album, 2020
4.04 | 105 ratings

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Magick Brother & Mystic Sister
Magick Brother & Mystic Sister Psychedelic/Space Rock

Review by friso
Prog Reviewer

4 stars Magic Brother and Mystic Sister is a retro-prot outfit from Spain playing a mixture of Canterbury prog (think of early Soft Machine or Gong), psychedelic folk/rock (think of early Pink Floyd) and soul. The sound of the record is simply amazing; great sixties organs and even some mellotron, soulful bass guitar, slightly distorted vocals and beautiful flutes. The compositions from the first six/seven songs are great as well and hadn't the album ended somewhat less inspired, it would have gotten the masterpiece rating for sure. Those last tracks aren't even that bad, but they sound more like soundtrack material for a vintage film. The whole album sounds like a sort of lost gem of the golden age of music. It needn't be looked at from a perspective of progressive rock per se because its just that tasteful and cool. The artwork fits the music as well. The second reprint of blue vinyl sounds warm and retro, but crackles a bit too much for a new vinyl. Magick Brother and Mystic Sister is a band to look out for, because few bands have managed to create a retro prog record as well as this one (Jordsjo comes to mind). By the way, because the album sounds this cool, you might just get away with it playing it in the living room. I hope we'll get to hear more from this group!
 Magick Brother & Mystic Sister by MAGICK BROTHER & MYSTIC SISTER album cover Studio Album, 2020
4.04 | 105 ratings

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Magick Brother & Mystic Sister
Magick Brother & Mystic Sister Psychedelic/Space Rock

Review by Progfan97402
Prog Reviewer

5 stars I couldn't resist the name of a band who named themselves after a Gong album or that wonderful psychedelic cover! So I was hoping this wasn't another one of those boring stoner rock albums trying to be "psychedelic". Far from it! Let me tell this is just the psychedelic and prog I was wanting! This band hails from Barcelona, Spain with two guys and two ladies, with Maya Fernandez on flute, Eva Muntada on keyboards and vocals, Xavi Sandoval on bass and guitars, and Marc Tena on drums and vocals. They all recorded all this in a studio in Park Guell, a park that was built by none other than Antoni Gaudi. "Utopia" gives this truly wonderful psychedelic vibe right out of the box, so to speak with minor chord guitar riffs and dreamy wordless female voices, then the band goes into a wonderful organ and synth solo, often compared to something off Caravan's If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You ("As I Feel I Die" in particular, but that's the one Caravan song that most resembles Soft Machine). Then it goes in Gong territory with that David Allen-style glissando guitar, exactly the thing I want to hear in a psychedelic album! "Waterforms" keeps that wonderful psychedelic vibe, with more nice female vocals, and Mellotron flutes. "The First Light" is in Pink Floyd territory, with Marc Tena trying to sound like David Gilmour with a psychedelic voice filter. "Yogi Tea" really blows me away with that nice late '60s sounding flute. A bit of a Soft Machine feel can be felt in this piece, but there's also some nice synths as well. "Arroyo del Buho" has a bit of that Spanish and Middle Eastern feel to it. Then a bit of that symphonic prog feel is to be had with the Mellotron, then it goes into more jazzy territory. "Echoes from the Past" starts off with some dreamy electric piano before it goes into clear Soft Machine territory (reminding me of something off Volume Two) until the female vocals kick in, then it sounds like Soft Machine with female vocals. "Love Scene" is an instrumental jazzy organ piece reminding me of something Hansson & Karlsson would do. "Instructions for Judgement Visions" is really interesting for that narration and strange synth piece.

Listening to this album you may easily be fooled for a recording from the late '60s and early 70s. No nasty digital production to be found here, no modern sound or production, it's as retro as they come. And how can you resist Maya Fernandez's flute playing? Her style is clearly not in the Ian Anderson style, her style reminds me of something Jimmy Hastings would do.

Fans of Gong, Soft Machine, and Caravan will find lots of dig here. The music is quite accessible to the point even the prog-phobic would love this, but still plenty proggy enough for the proghead to enjoy. It's not complex symphonic prog (although small hints are to be found), the Canterbury sound is felt, but with a psychedelic approach. 2020 may be an awful year for too many people, with COVID, but some of the most amazing music I've heard in recent years have surfaced and Magick Brother & Mystic Sister delivers big time. This album left me blown away, and the fact it's 2020 as well, and not somewhere between 1968 and 1972.

 Magick Brother & Mystic Sister by MAGICK BROTHER & MYSTIC SISTER album cover Studio Album, 2020
4.04 | 105 ratings

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Magick Brother & Mystic Sister
Magick Brother & Mystic Sister Psychedelic/Space Rock

Review by Rivertree
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator / Band Submissions

4 stars This album delivers kinda blend of canterbury and early psychedelic, wonderfully compounded in its entirety. The band name says it all. A quartet from Barcelona, Spain has realized this inspiring issue, two magic brothers and two mystic sisters, to make it concrete. Eva Muntada convinces, on one side with her ethereal voice. Furthermore she manages the whole keyboard equipment, which is diversified, definitely, ranging from classical piano to Hammond, Mellotron and then to spacey synthesizer impressions. Maya Fernández then serves a couple of nice mellow flute contributions, where Xavi Sandoval cares for the complete string instruments. Marc Tena's drumming comes somewhat subtle, restrained, though perfectly matching the entire atmosphere.

Regarding the ten songs given the instrumental part is dominating. They are mirroring a superb, rather retro sounding experience, a well thought out flow. And so it's nearly impossible to highlight any particular track in this case. Hereby they are drawing some inspirations from bands like Caravan, Soft Machine, Pink Floyd, Beatles, and Gong a little of course. Finally you may call the result jazzy psychedelic prog in retro outfit. Some other Instructions for judgment visions needed? I don't think so. Keep it up, brothers and sisters.

Thanks to nogbad_the_bad for the artist addition. and to projeKct for the last updates

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