UNCUT (UK)
SEPTEMBER 2002

Piano Magic
Writers Without Homes (4AD) ****

Neil Davenport

Fourth album from London's arty moodsters, featuring Tarwater's Ronald Lippok and ex-Cocteau Twin Simon Raymonde

The post-rock/electronica junction may have stalled now, but Piano Magic still shows it's potency. Previously, they'd utilise My Bloody Valentine-esque fogscapes with metronomic Kraftwerk click-beats to fashion intense, autumnal melancholia. While the lullaby chimes, gurgling analogue beats and ghostly femme vocals (featuring Le Volume Courbe's Charlotte Marionneau) still prevail, now Piano Magic's minimal but lovely patterns are more organic - all clunking xylophones, oboe and grand pianos. Yet Piano Magic aren't just pretty background instrumentalists. Instead, Glen Johnson's poetic lyricism about love and loss on "The Season Is Long" and "Already Ghosts" echoes their forlorn splendour. All powerfully evocative as a French arthouse flick.