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Anton Barbeau - Magic Act
Anton Barbeau's new album Magic Act is almost here! 12 semi-psychedelic pop gems waiting to be pulled from the rabbit's hat. Lend a hand?
Successful
91
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08/01/2015
End date
€4,503
Out of €4,200
107 %
The publications
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One of the songs on Magic Act is an oldie called Swindon. The recording of it that's going on the album is nowt but a ball of fun, with cellos and Karla, Khoi and Morris singing they heads out. Larry Tagg's bass is... well, you'll hear it soon enough. For the moment, I'm hoping you might dig this acoustic version recorded possibly even today upstairs on the only 12-string I could find. Yarp!<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="embedly-embed" frameborder="0" height="405" scrolling="no" src="//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FIaz_VGIo5ZY%3Fwmode%3Dopaque%26feature%3Doembed&wmode=opaque&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DIaz_VGIo5ZY%26feature%3Dyoutu.be&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FIaz_VGIo5ZY%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=ff2702755d9749cda571c6d6c2f3eb46&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube" width="540"></iframe></p>
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First of all, I want to say thank you to all who've contributed to the campaign so far. Every little helps, as she says whilst gently smacking herself in the advert!</p>
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I'm off to the UK in a few days to film a video for High Noon, the lead-off track from Magic Act. Laima Bite will direct, and Colin Moulding will appear doing lip-syncing on the bass guitar. I'm thrilled about this, to say the least. XTC are one of the life-changers on my musical map.</p>
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Most of the songs on the album are mixed, but a few are still dragging they waggy tails. I always have that feeling of "Must release this record NOW before the walls of time crumble and all soup is lost! I'm letting myself slow up a little now. In terms of "success," I can honestly say I don't have any indication that the timing of a single Ant release has really made a big difference. So, might as well enjoy the recording process without putting un-needed pressure on. Maybe it's typical of my way, but it feels like there's a mix of hi- and lo-fi going on here. Honestly, if I could make super-slick records, I probably would. But it seems that all my years in the basement toiling over a hot 4-track cassette machine have had much impact. One thing, "sound quality" aside, is that there aren't really any moments on this record that don't feel Right. You know, it's easy to add a second acoustic guitar or keep a tambourine in cos it's good enough. There are so many bits and bites of this record that feel like they were meant to happen only once and I feel lucky these moments have been captured.</p>
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It'd take too long here to explain, but this is an album that tells the stories of its own making many times over. Besides the obvious XTC-connection, Swindon is tangled deep into the story of Three Minute Tease, for example. The song Hop, Skip a Jump that closes the album comes from the earliest session I did with Morris in Berlin, before Andy joined the band. Yet the song is the very sound of my time in Cambridge. Around and around. But maybe another time I can bore you better with more not-very-sordid details.</p>
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For the moment, hi and hello and thanks and all such. I'll try to post a song or vid or something as well, but I'm still getting used to the KKBB interface. Words will have to work for now!</p>