Released during the first quarter of 2024, Magana’s ‘Break Free’ single shared some very interesting musical ideas. Billed as “witchy rock”, the track managed to convey a hard edge, but retain a sense of the atmospheric. With the aid of droning keys and percussive rhythms, the performance conveyed a spooky vibe, but was also unafraid to take detours into harder edged sounds. Like a strange hybrid of 90s goth, classic Cocteau Twins and a deep dive into middle period Lush, it wasn’t for everyone, but for those with a love of various 90s and 00’s alternative sounds, it brought a welcome new slant to genre-specific sounds that often felt familiar.

The ‘Bad News’ EP brings similarly inventive sounds into the world of the unsuspecting listener, but doesn’t necessarily tread quite the same path. With the four pieces linked via a winter theme, the material feels a little more sedate, but without feeling entirely settled.

‘Half To Death’ opens with another drone, but bends that into strange pop-like shapes to create a weird melody that’s cold, yet oddly quirky. Over that, gentle rhythms pulse to lend a little more depth, but never any real weight. It isn’t minimalist as such, but you’d be hard pressed to call any of the musical elements busy. It sounds like something you’d find playing under a montage scene in a US indie flick – almost like the work of Kimya Dawson with a much bigger sense of actual melody. The music is good, but it’s down to the vocal to make everything work, and on that score, Magana sounds superb. Throughout the piece, she shares a breathy performance that tips the hat to the otherworldly, with semi-hushed melodies pulling heavily on the strings of 90s infused dream pop, and working a melody that’s almost in danger of floating away. Moving into something even more ethereal, ‘Shower Song’ works a fine multi-tracked vocal which brings both a haunting melody and an intermittent hook that really fleshes out Magana’s world of wonder. Between those bursts of sound, the short number offers something a little more traditional, with the singer songwriter weaving a light vocal – almost leaning upon twee pop for its influence – against acoustic guitar, and then an indie-centric backdrop, where bursts of bass and militaristic drums build a great melody. This might venture into safer territory, but it’s almost impossible not to be drawn in by another fey vocal and a hugely nostalgic sound. In 2025, Bandcamp word of mouth will have to do the heavier lifting, but it’s fair to say that if this had emerged in 1993 amid a world of Drugstores and Tiny Monroes, the NME would have been all over it.

‘I’m Not Doing Anything’ seems a bit less concerned with clear melodies at first, sharing a keyboard loop that sounds like an ice cream van’s distorted chimes, then layering the disorienting sound with a looping, distorted bass. As with ‘Half To Death’ it’s the vocal’s job to link the strange and disparate elements, and with another dream pop-ish vibe to guide her, Magana sounds unmistakeable…and strangely comfortable within an escalating whirlwind of sound. Individually, all of the elements here are great; combined, they could be in danger of creating a sensory overload. However, if you’re in the market for exploring some indie sounds that care not for obvious boundaries, it’ll be worth a listen. That’s balanced really nicely by ‘Hold On’ elsewhere on this EP which fuses dream pop and folk in a way that, again, makes Magana sound like an indie press darling from a bygone time, and yet still offers something that sounds great at the time of release. In keeping with the artist’s desires to not do things in the most obvious way, the cleaner melodies here are offset by a world of keys that agive the impression of half of the arrangement being backmasked, whilst some deep keys introduce odd warbling noises that sound like an unexpected tribute to some of the more DIY experiments from The Magnetic Fields’ ‘69 Love Songs’. Off kilter as this may be, in time, it has the potential to be the EP’s best track. It’s definitely the most striking.

This EP is rather lovely. The four songs sound like a more confident extension of the Magana “sound”. There’s also a refinement that makes everything just a little more accessible, but without making the material any more commercial. For lovers of strange DIY indie sounds and well arranged dream pop, it’ll certainly be a welcome listen.

February 2025