Magicada by The Bibles Of Twang

The Magicacada bug gestates for seventeen years, tucked away, all safe and warm, under the earth.

Formed in 1999, The Bibles of Twang have ploughed a pretty rich furrow.

At times hampered by geography (Rich living in Spain, Pete in Germany, Jimmy in, err, Portsmouth) the Twang have built up a body of work that has taken many fascinating twists and turns.

1999’s Goodbye, recorded straight to a cassette via an old Hitachi stereo, highlighted a debt to early Pavement and Guided By Voices.

2000’s Two borrowed the talents of Wolves Have Mercy’s Jim Hall and ex-Rugged Maps singer Duncan Marson, to flesh out a warmer sound (due to the new Tascam four-track).

2005 brought Illuminations/La Palace Coiffure, a gentle psychedelic folk love-letter to the East Coast, (which features Rainward Down, the song that is most requested at live gigs, but which has never been played).

Then Cosmos Recordings came knocking and the track Good Dogs was handed over for inclusion on their magnificent We Are All Circling The Stars. The CD release gig was the first time the Twang had ever stepped onto the boards, a nerve-shredding affair, especially considering luminaries in the audience included King Creosote.

Good Dogs was included on the double album The Bibles of Twang which crossed alt-country with a little bit of psych and as many nods to prog as Pete was allowed (not many).

Then after a hiatus for births and deaths, The Twang struck back with the hauntingly bleak vision of The Dark Monarch. Taking its title from the 1962 Sven Berlin book, it crossed over into occultist themes and art-house movie sounds. Flavoured by their first UK tour supporting Indiana’s Normanoak, the Twang enriched and developed the psych-folk sound that had been just under the surface on their previous recordings.

Magicada, released in the autumn of 2016 was a return to the lighter shades of Illuminations/La Palace Coiffure without fully shedding the black clothes of its predecessor.

It includes a song based on a Kids In The Hall Sketch. And I can bet that it’s the only album you’ve bought today that has!

Seventeen years. Its only taken seventeen years.

The Bibles of Twang formed in 1999. Magicada is their sixth album.