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Magic Dirt

Editorial Review

Editorial Review

Magic Dirt are one of the longest-surviving Australian acts to emerge in the 90s. Formed in Geelong around 1993, the group was widely considered ??the next big thing' in Australian rock and were picking up considerable Triple J radio-play by the time their second EP rolled around in ??94. This was despite the group's insistence on ending one of their early singles with 10 minutes of distortion and feedback.

Perhaps the reason Magic Dirty are still here after all these years is that they've continuously done their own thing, refusing to bow to record label pressure. Warner Music discovered this the hard (and expensive) way when the band submitted their major label debut, 1995's Archers of Loaf. Rather than the expected guitar pop, the record label discovered brooding guitars and an album full of distortion. This didn't go over particularly well and the band were dropped - not that they seemed particularly fussed; they simply took their money, went out on tour with Big Day Out and then returned with more fuzzy guitars on their ?98 follow-up, Young and Full of the Devil.

By the turn of the millennium Magic Dirt seemed to have worked all the fuzzy guitars out of their system and went back to the indie pop of earlier work. Somewhat amusingly, the band then re-signed with Warner. Things worked out a little better this time around, and the band released a number of critically and commercially successful albums between 2001 and 2005. After releasing an ?experimental' mini-album last year (Beast), the once-again independent Magic Dirt have now returned with a proper release, Girl. It's out now and sits somewhere between their indie guitar pop and ?we don't need a career' distortion. Obviously, the live shows rock.
Mikolai, July 2008