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  • Sarah O'Drisoll

Majical Cloudz performs tomorrow night (Sunday, January 24) with She-Devils at Mississippi Studios (3939 N Mississippi). Details here.

Canadian electronic duo Majical Cloudz makes music that exists on binary spectrums: sound and silence, vulnerability and emotional distance, black and white.

"The music is intentionally muted in certain ways," vocalist Devon Welsh says via email. That "muted" quality carries over to the band's black-and-white promotional photos and music videos, which share a starkness with Welsh's closely shorn hair and intense gaze. Even Welsh's email responses are brief—almost guarded.

Collaborator Matthew Otto joined Welsh in 2012, and in October they released the sixth Majical Cloudz studio record, the critically acclaimed Are You Alone? on Matador Records. Last week, they followed it up with Wait and See, an EP of material recorded during the album sessions. Like other Majical Cloudz work, the album and EP resemble hardcore punk ideologically in their willingness to nakedly confront sadness, but the resulting music couldn't sound more different. Where punk rock uses noise, Majical Cloudz employ quiet; where hardcore protests socio-economic injustice, Majical Cloudz are intensely and compulsively personal. But there's an economy in Majical Cloudz's songwriting, alongside a willingness to expose personal truths and shortcomings, which is undeniably post-punk.


Over largely ambient and textural electronic soundscapes (think Depeche Mode without the disco, or Brian Eno with a tune), Welsh confesses uncomfortable secrets with lyrics so sincere you don't mind the over-sharing. "I'm broken, I feel it, I am," Welsh sings in "Heavy." From the Joy Division-style "Control," Welsh sings, "Can I try to be you?/Can I dress up in your clothes and be somebody new?"

"I'm mostly just trying to say what comes naturally, in ways that are interesting," Welsh says. "The music is somewhat autobiographical. It's about things that are not made up, but it's not always about myself."

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