Magnetic Morning: Magnetic Morning EP

Released on “Record Store Day” in April, Magnetic Morning’s five-song EP brings a summer psychedelia to alternarock. Composed of Swervedriver/Toshack Highway’s singer and guitarist Adam Franklin and Interpol drummer Sam Fogarino, Magnetic Morning is more than a side project duo. Layers of guitar over droning synth create waves of hallucinations while Franklin’s hypnotic baritone leads a meditation. In “Don’t Go to Dream State”, dark and dismal industrial guitar and synth create a gritty, sweaty, and almost-Cure kind of rock while a single shrill tone leads the sludge deeper into nightmare territory. Recorded in Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland studios, the Magnetic Morning EP references David Bowie (“Cold War Kids”) and covers the Kinks (“The Way Love Used to Be”), all while slowly building more and more tension and texture. Although the fifth track is merely an instrumental, extended version of the first track, the 20-minute EP provides enough dark electronic texture for a full-length.