April Magazine - If The Ceiling Were A Kite: Vol. 1

BACK IN STOCK: Black vinyl press - edition of 300

Can the universe have two centres? Cos if it's not Gothenburg it's San Francisco... It's impossible for me to think about what's going on in SF right now without immediately being drawn to April Magazine, a comparatively loosely assembled three(sometimes four) piece who seem to simultaneously operate at both the heart and the margins of the current Bay Area underground: on the one hand they share members with many other bands, their guitarist/singer runs a gallery that functions as some kind of focal point/social space, and Cindy even have a song named after them, yet their music is resolutely lo-fi, couched in a mysterious fog, the live footage available online seems to suggest that they sound slightly different each time they play, there is no social media presence , and there are reports they have dozens of songs (possibly albums?) that have not and may never be released, hidden inside their own private universe. These two new releases, one a LP compilation of sorts, the other a cassette of seemingly newer material, both arriving almost on top of each other, attempt to pull AM a little closer into the light but also make them feel as endearingly enigmatic as ever. The group channel the greats - Spacemen 3, The Pastels, early B&S, Mary Chain, Rainy Day/Opal/Mazzy et al - but submerge their obvious melodic capabilities within seemingly infinite spray can hiss, as if the songs are being pulled backwards through some vortex to the past. Half of these tracks are instrumentals, and it's in those moments AM are perhaps at their most expressive, suggesting a very inviting melancholy that you can't quite figure out. Though the LP remasters the original recordings and is a little cleaner sounding as a result, there's little to choose between the two collections - if you like any April Magazine song, you will want both of these. The appeal is that the more you hear from them, the less you really know, and all the better for it. Maybe, then, it's that AM are here to show there is no centre to the universe, it's always just off to the side…