New Releases
Debut album, Make Lists Do Something OUT NOW!Swalf 16CD - 
CD // £8.99
18/05/09
Make Lists Do Something is the debut album from Magic Arm and features
the singles ‘Bootsy Bootsy‘, ‘Outdoor Games‘ and ‘Widths & Heights
"‘Move Out’’s sleazy bleep-funk, sounds like the best MIA
backing track you’ve never heard, while blues standard ‘Six Cold Feet
Of Ground’ is reimagined as a haunting electro-ballad.”
NME
Beck Style Maverick too restless for one musical guise. The Metro
“Hovering between the more playful side of early-Beta Band and
the Fisher Price folktronica of Kid Carpet, while musically Magic Arm
is often-igniting bleeps, lyrically ‘Make Lists, Do Something’ is awash
with vulnerable depth..”Clash.
Magic
Arm - Bootsy Bootsy EP
Swalf 15 -
10" vinyl// £4.99
23/02/09
As an introduction to the world of Magic Arm, 'Bootsy Bootsy' could not
be better. The pure joy of this ostensibly larky, hugely infectious slice
of DIY pop, is subverted neatly by the lyric "Inside everyone, I hear
the end, and that's ominous.". Magic Arm revels in these contrasts - "on
the album, there's a lot of happy music undercut by sentiments that are
quite bleak. But isn't that how music should work? It should fool you,
slightly."
"A songwriter in the sonically adventerous vien once epitomised
by Beck” The
Independant
“Magic Arm's electrocuted folk is a perfect lo-fi hotbed.”Clash.
Side A
1. Bootsy Bootsy
2. Break My Lungs
3. Daft Punk is Playing At My House
Side B
1. My My
2. Said Things
3. Bootsy Bootsy ( Real Dolls Remix)
New Releases
Magic
Arm - Widths and Heights7" vinyl// £2.99
14/07/08
Hailed by Iron & Wine's Samuel Beam as 'the master of the loop pedal',
multi instrumentalist Marc Rigelsford, AKA the Manchester based Magic
Arm, is set to release ‘Widths and Heights’ on Switchflicker Records in
July. Splendidly eclectic, ‘Widths and Heights’ is a masterpiece of musicianship,
with layers of sounds, bleeps and vocals all fighting for supremacy over
each other, yet working side by side to produce a playfully organic gem,
whilst at the same time serving the best interests of pop music.
Radio 1’s Huw Stephens, always the baton bearer for new music, championed
Magic Arm’s last release, the ‘Outdoor Games’ EP, released last year -
After the successful release of the EP, which received critical acclaim
from the press, Marc locked himself away to write for four months, and
then spent a further six months in the studio to put the finishing touches
to ‘Widths and Heights’, and his debut album with Robin Housman.
The b-side to ‘Widths and Heights’, ‘Ballad of Melody Nelson’, is a cover
of the Serge Gainsbourg classic which has now become a regular in his
live show. Marc was invited to perform a song at an evening celebrating
the French singer, and he proceeded to leave his unmistakeable stamp all
over the classic, to a fantastic response.
“Magic Arm, aka Marc Rigelsford, is a man digging for diamonds
at the folk/electronica coal-face” Guardian
“The most innovative and sparkling new musician in Manchester.”
Manchester Evening News.
1. Widths and Heights
2. The Ballad of Melody Nelson
Magic
Arm: Outdoor Games EPSwalf 12
10" vinyl// £5.00
11/06/07
Recorded at home on Marc’s computer, the EP ranges from twisted psych-folk
to sinister pop and austere electronica. There’s plenty to love here:
the title track builds to a towering crescendo, People Need Order takes
the ’60s harmony-pop formula and skews it with a freaky backing track
and instrumental I Want You You Want Me is built on a Casio organ beat
but expertly if incongruously blended in with banjo and church organ
sounds. Elsewhere, DAQ (Don’t Ask Questions) is what Marc refers to
as his “un-informed take on electronica,” but is actually a neat track
that pokes fun at the pretensions of the genre, love song You Should
Know has elements of ‘30s pastiche and Move Out boasts a looping flute
over a clockwork-sounding backing.
“King Biscuit at his best” DJ Magazine
“Outdoor Games is a stirring, deliciously woozy surge of a record” Guardian
Guide