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internationalsadhits:

In the early 1990s, Naomi and I got a phone call from guitarists Kate Biggar and Wayne Rogers, whom we knew from the band Crystalized Movements. They had recently moved from Connecticut to Boston, and their rhythm section hadn’t followed - they had a gig booked, and would we be interested in subbing?

No one had ever asked us anything like that before, so we said yes. It sounded fun to be a rhythm section on call, like Sly and Robbie.

We showed up at their address for rehearsal, and they led us downstairs from the kitchen to the basement. It was dank and dark, like a basement would be. This was also their recording studio, named (like their record label, and the record store they later opened) Twisted Village. They started to play, and we followed. They didn’t stop, so neither did we. At the end, they said that sounded nothing like Crystalized Movements cause we never stopped playing. So we formed the band Magic Hour.

All of Magic Hour’s albums were made at Twisted Village, which migrated wherever Kate and Wayne did - from basement to basement, or to a hired rehearsal space when the basement flooded/neighbors complained/between moves. The medium was Wayne’s Tascam 388, a 1/4″ reel-to-reel 8 track - a machine with a tape compression and basement murk that Wayne played like another instrument.

The only time Magic Hour recorded anywhere else - or to any other machine - was on the radio. During a tour of the UK in the spring of 1994, we were invited to the gorgeously appointed BBC studios in Maida Vale for a Peel Session. We were promoting our first album, No Excess Is Absurd, but we decided to play all new songs instead, including “Passing Words.” The engineers told us it was longest session track Peel had ever aired.

The version we taped at Twisted Village is longer. And murkier, as a basement would be. It’s on the second Magic Hour album, Will They Turn You On or Will They Turn On You.

All the Twisted Village recordings of Magic Hour are now available for streaming and download at Bandcamp. The complete Peel Session can be found online as well.