"Irony is no stranger to the Raleigh based psych-trip-hop-gaze outfit Mary and the Magdalens. For one thing, Mary and the Magdalens is only one person, and his name ain’t Mary. For another thing, he isn’t Scottish (see above), and we all know that only Scottish band names are permitted to reference the Catholic Church. Even more importantly, and unlike most of his sample-happy contemporaries, this guy REALLY wants to make sure you know where his source material comes from.
An interest in soul, R&B, and funk, lead Matthew DeBellis to abandon the romantic croons of his psychedelic bubblegum-pop project, Caruso, in favor of something a little darker, a little more introspective, a little bit groovier. Convinced that generational sampling will be the next big thing, DeBellis has opted not to go straight to the wax for his riffs and beats and snatches them instead from other DJs—in this case, DJ Kenny Dope, who comprises one half of the NYC house duo, Masters at Work. Shoegazer walls of guitars swell beneath pre-fucked-with grooves, and the result, derivative as it must sound, is ingeniously transcendent.
Side A has two short and sweet little tidbits, titled (in case you’re not entirely convinced of the whole irony thing) “Big Johnny” and “Long and Red.” The titles themselves pay homage to the tracks from which they pilfer, southern soulster Big John Hamilton’s “Big Bad John” and blues-rocker Leslie West’s (later, Mountain’s) “Long Red.” The best pick of the three on this compact little EP, however, has to be side B’s oh-so-cleverly titled “Lessons In Thievery #9,” which borrows bass, beats, and a buzz-saw guitar riff from Wilson Pickett’s “Engine #9.” Thievery? Well at least DeBellis is honest about it. Which is, of course, highly ironic.
Oh yeah, and there’s a pentagram above Mary’s head on the cover image . . . but that’s less ironic and more blasphemous, and (as you can imagine) we like the blasphemy here at GT."
Emily Blackwater
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Alternate artwork, above
