Here We Go Magic - Pigeons

Luke Temple isn't the first songwriter to transform his music from humble solo tunes into something much grander. A.C. Newman of the New Pornographers and even Paul Simon ("Graceland")  or David Byrne (Eno-ific Talking Heads) have been able to reimagine their material for a larger stage, adding dense layers of sound and rhythm for a bolder, more dynamic aesthetic. Temple, who has released two neo-folk solo albums under his own name, decided to make that step with the dramatically different '09 debut album from his alter-ego Here We Go Magic. Stratas of electronics and spiraling loops of murky rhythmic patterns became a psychedelic haze of ever-morphing sound behind his almost ghostly tenor vocals. "(I) wanted to make music that was less challenging," says Temple, "more easily immersive...simple songs that, through layering, had a sonic complexity, as opposed to a compositional one."

While Temple's HWGM debut was a solo affair, new project Pigeons (June 8, Secretly Canadian) takes his aural attitude to a whole new place with the addition in the studio of the full band brought aboard for his '09 world tour. On the tightly wound lead single "Collector" there's a hypnotic fury of multi-tasking: grooves sputter and kick, rich layers of twisty guitar lines mesh with droning synthesizers, galloping drumbeats and Temple's clipped vocals for a highly caffeinated, exhilarating rush. As a peak into what's to come with Pigeons, it's a stunning display of propulsive, loosely gripped frenzy. Recommended.

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Here We Go Magic - "Collector" (from the album Pigeons)