Lucio Aquilina - Magic M

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  • Jeez, waiting for this to get a release was like torture. Internationally famous DJs have had their greedy paws all over ‘Magic M’ since way back in April, but if you’re an ordinary schlub like me, you would have had to make do with listening to it all summer as a rough-as-guts clip on YouTube. That clip has been clicked 23,000 times now, only approx. 100 of which are mine, a fact which scientifically proves that a) there are a lot of Internet saddos like me in the world and b) this track is probably going to be huge. No doubt the long wait was due to a squabble behind the scenes with every label and his dog wanting to release this track, but Cocoon finally emerges from the scrum with the ball, an outcome which couldn’t be more appropriate really because ‘Magic M’ slots right into the Frankfurt label’s crowdpleasing melodic minimal aesthetic very nicely. Which is not to say that the cut is obvious, on the contrary, each part – the twitchy rhythm, the wiggling bass, the bells – is pitched just so, and unlike Aquilina’s previous 12” ‘Feeling Plastik’, which also had great elements but couldn’t quite build them into a payoff, here all the parts lock together into a satisfying peak, which unexpectedly arrives very early, before the track revolves and rotates around the ballerina music box motif until close. It’s a winner. On the B-side, ‘My Cube’ is built from the same bells and similar ideas, but it’s dragged down by an uninspired bassline. Just goes to show, that while the tune in ‘Magic M’ is strong, it’s not the only thing that is special: its twitching rhythm is what makes it good dance music. Like Ella Fitzgerald said, it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.
  • Tracklist
      A Magic M B My Cube
RA