Majical Cloudz release Wait & See EP, to play The Chapel Tuesday

Canadian minimalists Majical Cloudz exploded late last year with their third record, Are You Alone?, the latest installment of a steady climb from critically acclaimed obscure pop to… popular indie obscure pop. The duo is now set to embark on the west coast US leg of their first North American tour since the release, hitting San Francisco’s The Chapel next Tuesday with fellow Montreal-based duo She-Devils.

Although lead single “Downtown” boasts an odd lo-fi, slightly uncomfortable video, it is reason enough musically to see Majical Cloudz for — in my rare case — a third time, what drives most to their shows is the duo’s deadpan, but warm delivery, similar to their recorded material.

The duo recently also released a set of outtakes from the record yesterday, titled Wait & See. From lyrics like “don’t fuck up your mind” on the title track, to “am I pretty still?” (“Pretty”), lead singer and songwriter Devon Welsh reveals a refreshing sort of lyrical vulnerability atop Matthew Otto’s sparse accompaniment. About the five-track EP, he writes:

These songs were recorded when we were working on “Are You Alone?”, but didn’t fit on that album for one reason or another. They aren’t more recent than the songs on AYA — they date from different periods of time, one of them is among the earliest songs written for AYA and others are more recent.

Article by Joanna Jiang