The Church – Magician Among The Spirits

I'm with Blackout. I come check the Church's discography every couple of months with a small amount of hope that this,might get the vinyl reissue treatment. ("Hologram of Ba'al", "After Everything Now This", "Forget Yourself" and "Uninvited Like the Clouds" as well). I've become an all vinyl guy, but have all of these albums on cd. Just don't listen to cd's much and am not a big streaming guy so I return every few months to check for a possible reissue.
As far as Magician goes, it (along with Sometime Anywhere) are kind of outliers in the band's discography. While the psychedelic fabric of the band is in evidence, these tracks have a much darker, proggier vibe than anything they'd released up to this point. Never a fan favorite, it's reputation has grown some since the days that I would see it in every used CD bin that I'd dig through. It's a great late night record and one that I'd love to have on vinyl someday.

Please release this on vinyl!!! amazing album that deserves a vinyl release that it never received.

With the nearly fifteen minute opus “Magician Among The Spirits” dominating this album, The Church could have used some magic at this juncture in the career due to the fact songwriter Steve Kilbey was knee deep into heroin, a lack of record management, along with issue regarding their US distributor who went bankrupt owing the band something in the area of a quarter million dollars and over 25,000 compact discs, that just up and disappeared, leaving the band on rather shaky ground.

Magician Among The Spirits (1996), along the subsequent Magician Among The Spirits Plus Some (1999) containing three extra tracks with a reworked album title and album jacket saw the group attempting to return to their jangling guitar based roots, though there was an infusion of art rock influences that laced the album; with all of this designed to create a sense of depth and haunting atmosphere. Many claim that the release can be seen a a fugitive with a series of songs that got away from the band, living in their own space, a nearly impossible release to catalog among their other outings, with others suggesting that the record is unfocused and disoriented, though I don’t hear that. Certainly I’ll admit that there was one songs that came off with less sincerity, and a couple that are too roaming (such as “It Could Be Anyone”), but then I find that to be true on most albums, though when the track “Countdown” bounces from your speakers, you’ll feel you’re back on top of the world with an album that was designed to come off bigger than life, yet more hushed, more liquid, experimental and enchanting, where to that end The Church have made a really fine record. There’s not a space on this record that has not been considered and filled with sound, sound that is so complex it rivets you in place with its sheer complexity and visual intoxication, making songs such as “Ladyboy” (a song about sexual ambiguity) come off as an expected step forward from the album Starfish, while “Romany Caravan” moves with a slow paced Byrds’ “Eight Miles High” attitude, creeping around the baseboards of your room, then sliding down between the floorboards and disappearing as if it were some half remembered dream. The album finishes up with the sonically wasted “Magician Among The Spirits,” a song that in many ways can be seen as an extension, though perhaps a reprise is more apt, for the opening tack “Welcome,” a very experimental number that washes in and out like sea-foam at the edges of gentle warm lapping waves.

I’m not going to suggest that this album is an acquired taste, you’re either going to be into it or not, nevertheless, The Church do turn an unexpected corner here … and perhaps it’s best to leave it at that.

*** The Fun Facts: The album’s title was taken from a book written by the magician Harry Houdini and C.M. Eddy Jr. in 1924, regarding Houdini’s investigations into the world of spirit mediums, with the cover art featuring a photographic negative of Houdini.

Review by Jenell Kesler