Kendal Calling
Saturday 27th July. Tim Burgess presents Tim Peaks Tent
www.kendalcalling.co.uk  www.timpeaks.com

Secret Garden Party
Sunday 28 July. The Local sunset sessions
www.secretgardenparty.com

Festival Number 6
13th, 14th, 15th September.
www.festivalnumber6.com

Limited edition vinyl is available for pre-order £14.99 inc P&P. (£11.99 + £3 P&P)

Digipack CD is available for pre-order £9.99 inc P&P. (£8.99 + £1 P&P)

Moving away from the more electronic sound of his debut LP, Images Rolling has taken on the natural reverbs of the vast part-derelict three-storey house, coming over as an altogether warmer and more comforting entity. Take infectious opener Put Your Collar Up; classical sounds are thrown off centre by detuned pianos and woozy synths that move with hip hop bounce. Elsewhere Warning Sign recalls the ambience of Mercury Rev’s weirdly magical off-kilter daydreams whilst Lanes’ sweeping strings and the merry-go-round waltz of Great Life give light to Rigelsford’s new method of exploration in writing songs on a piano rather than a guitar for the very first time.

“After finishing the first album I bought a piano with the intention of learning it and it being a key part of the new album. I spent a few months learning Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata as an entry point.”

From entry point to its end Images Rolling is a restless, fearlessly ambitious, yet understated and articulate piece of work. No-one could ever accuse Rigelsford of making music that fits into any pigeon-shaped holes, but with this record he’s certainly found a musical home.

Click to view slideshow.

Magic Arm will play a string of special shows in churches and suitably ornate venues ahead of the album this May: Buy tickets here

https://soundcloud.com/magicarm/put-your-collar-up

9th May – The Caves, Edinburgh with Sparrow and the Workshop Tickets £6
10th May – The Glad Café, Glasgow with Jonnie Common Tickets £6
13th May – The Porter, Bath with The Bony King of Nowhere
16th May – St Pancras old church, London with Dan Clews Tickets £7
17th May – Baronial Hall, Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester with Nancy Elizabeth SOLD OUT
18th May – LEAF on Bold St, Liverpool with Silent Cities Tickets £5

January 16th   The Borderline London , £7.50

January 17th   Ruby Lounge Manchester,  £7.50

January 18th  Workman´s Club Dublin,  € 10.25

January 19th  King Tuts  Glasgow,  £7.50

Photography by Andrew Brooks

Friday 14 Dec – Cloud Sounds Xmas Bash Night & Day, Manchester Tickets £6

Monday 10 Dec – Singing Adams Vortex Jazz Club, London 6

Wednesday 28 Nov - The Night & Day’s 21st Birthday party Denis Jones & Magic Arm  The Night and Day, Manchester £10

Tuesday 27 Nov – Marc Riley Session for 6 Music

Thursday 1 Nov – Clash Magazine presents Magic Arm & The Big Deal at the Lexington, London £7

Friday 5 Oct  – MCR Scenewipe presents Magic Arm, Aidan Smith, ‘King DJ at Fuel, Manchester.

Saturday 15 Sept – Ramsbottom Festival Lancashire. Tickets £20

DIY pop raconteur Marc Rigelsford – the mastermind behind Manchester’s Magic Arm – has got some nerve. It takes a brave soul to pen a debut album as daring and different as 2009’s acclaimed Make Lists, Do Something – a record that tumbles through the kaleidoscopic pop sprawl of early McCartney and Beach Boys adding a sinister electronic edge.

The prodigious Mancunian’s much anticipated new EP, Put Your Collar Up, is every bit as adventurous. Recorded alone with the multi-talented Rigelsford performing all instruments, it looks certain to cement his growing reputation as one of the most exciting prospects in British music today – in the words of the Guardian Guide, “like waves of lysergic happiness lapping against your cerebral cortex.”

That Magic Arm began in 2006 as a favour to a friend whose film needed a soundtrack is telling of the cinematic overtones that make Put Your Collar Up such an epic listening experience. From those beginnings, the project soon snowballed into a phenomenon of its own, winning praise from the likes of Lauren Laverne, Zane Lowe and Marc Riley. More important however were the ringing endorsements of his peers: Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear described Rigelsford as “incredible”, while Samuel Beam of Iron and Wine dubbed him “the master of the loop pedal.”

“It looks at starting an album from scratch and being daunted by the endless possibilities, directions and ideas,” says the songwriter of the surging title track here – an infectious folk anthem thrown off centre by detuned pianos and woozy synth noises. Cinema Times is more introspective still, Rigelsford musing on a bout of melancholic nostalgia – “thinking the past is better than the present wondering how to redress the balance” as he puts it – at the epicentre of a pulsating brass-accompanied dance number. By the time the haunting Through the Mire pulls the EP to a close, you’ll be frothing at the mouth at the prospect of next year’s incoming full length, Images Rolling.

From the simple stairwell used to record parts of this EP (“to give it that lost and distant sound,” he explains) to the branch of Cash Converters where he happened upon a dusty Yamaha CS-10 keyboard sparking the love affair with lo-fi electronics at the heart of Magic Arm, Rigelsford finds inspiration even in the unlikeliest of places. Now it’s your turn to be inspired by him.

Put Your Collar Up is taken from Magic Arm’s second album ‘Images Rolling’ to be released on Switchflicker / Peacefrog later in 2012.

Magic Arm performing in Hyde Park London Grizzly Bear Serpentine Sessions 2010.

Magic Arm – is otherwise known as Marc Rigelsford. Like Beck, Beta Band or Patrick Wolf, Magic Arm is a sonically curious soul who fuses folk, rock and effervescent electronics. But, as reference points, none of those three quite hit the spot.

It helps that so little (outside of the Beach Boys and “early” McCartney) has obviously influenced the Magic Arm sound. You might expect him, given his love of bleeps and farty electronic squelches, to be a big fan of everything from Kraftwerk to Autechre. Not so. “Buying a Yamaha CS-10 in Cash Converter was the biggest influence on my sound,” he says, dryly, before talking about his love of Gwen Stefani, Dizzee Rascal, Peaches and Gnarls Barkley. “I’m literally trying to write pop music,” says Marc, “but it never comes out that way. There’s always a dark edge to it.”

Quite. On the album, Magic Arm’s smart update of an old Leroy Carr blues song, ‘Six Cold Feet Of Ground’ (which he turns into a desperate, hurtling, computerised gabbled plea for forgiveness), appears alongside songs called, darkly, ‘Sound Of The Night’ and ‘Rested Bones’. “What can I say?” says Magic Arm, trying to dodge the question. “I’m a moody Cancerian.” Listen closely to the ostensibly larky singles ‘Bootsy Bootsy’ (“Inside everyone, I hear the end, and that’s ominous.”) and ‘Widths & Heights’ – a “bitter” love song – and behind that brash folk-pop exterior, there is clearly trouble at the emotional mill.

Not that Magic Arm will explain why, or reveal many of the close biographical details which inspired these songs. In an age of emotional incontinence, he is wary, uncomfortable with the idea of explaining himself to strangers. He can articulate vulnerability in song; but, in person, he needs to keep those songs at (Magic) arms’ length. “I find lyrics difficult. I can spend hours and hours over one line. ‘What am I giving, or not giving, away here? Do I sound like an idiot?’ You’re right, on the album, there’s a lot of happy music undercut by sentiments that are quite bleak. But isn’t that how music should work? It should fool you, slightly.”

He is reticent to spill, you suspect, precisely – and slightly ironically – because he feels the songs so keenly. “I want to move people emotionally. But, primarily, I want to move myself. For me, writing the songs is emotionally cathartic.”

Whilst such ambitious projects often shine in the studio, on the stage many a 21st century one-man-band has come unstuck. Not so Magic Arm. Early solo performances led Samuel Beam of the much loved Iron & Wine, to hail Marc “the master of the loop pedal” and he wasn’t wrong. More recently though Marc has abandoned this tricksy bit of kit and has been taking to the stage with a real live band. No longer focussed on layering up live-sampled layers of sound, the Magic Arm live show has a new passion and energy that give the songs a life beyond the recordings.

So much music is safe, predictable, a commodity, but Magic Arm is here to remind you that it can still be liberating, messy and powerful. Radio 1′s Zane Lowe and Huw Stephens, and Marc Riley, are already fans. He has supported the likes of Beirut, Iron & Wine and James Yorkston.

Steve Lamacq declared Magic Arm’s Glastonbury festival debut a “highlight”, while the Manchester Evening News have dubbed him: “The most innovative and sparkling new musician in the city.”