Real Magic Vol.1

Black vinyl with front laminated flipback “Manila” coloured card sleeves. Treader is proud to announce the first solo release from label-founder John Coxon. Best known for his work in Spring Heel Jack and Spiritualized, as well as extensive collaborative work with J. Spaceman, Evan Parker, Charles Hayward, Han Bennink and Pedro Reyes to name a few, it was perhaps inevitable that recent times allowed Coxon the space and time to experiment on his own
Real Magic Vol. 1 is the result of a year’s worth of early morning recordings made during 2021 in Coxon’s east London studio while he played with a newly acquired tube mic and grappled with chronic tinnitus. Coxon’s playful and inquisitive approach to working with minimal instrumentation (guitar, percussion, CDJ & turntable) was by self-imposed parameters (mono recordings, limited overdubs and post-production) allowing him to focus on making the music in the moment and staying out of his own way. Loosely improvised and non-recursive although anchored to root notes and two chord blues patterns, the music inhabits its own, very personal, space and reads as both a reflection on the act of making music and an Oulipian experiment with sound. Real Magic, knowingly oxymoronic, reflects Coxon’s feeling that ‘(music is) …an endlessly fascinating and magical thing that I still don’t understand’
Compiled by Mikel Acosta, Real Magic Vol. 1 perfectly captures these intimate and diaristic works of a specific point in an artists’ life. Acosta’s selection and sequencing provide a foothold for the listener, transforming the sketches into a surprisingly vivid and expressive suite of perfectly unbalanced meta-music. Perhaps the Sibelius quote ‘where language ends music begins’ captures the spirit of Real Magic Vol. 1 most accurately