The Sun Sets…to bring on a (much belated) Magnetic Morning

One of the surprise delights of the music calendar for 2009 was seeing underrated 90s indie shoegaze gods Swervedriver lose none of their power as they blew away all comers at ATP’s Nightmare Before Christmas.

One of my all time favourite festival gigs was in 2005. Splendour in the Grass, Australia’s premier multi-day outdoors festival, always has a stellar line-up. And amongst the awesomeness of that year, the clear standout was NYC’s new upstarts, Interpol.

With Interpol quietly lurking in the shadows as their new LP looms to launch, and Swervedriver strengthening their fan base with many big line shows since reforming in 2008, I thought that now was a good time to harken back a year or two to look at a collaborative effort that has been morbidly maligned, and sadly overlooked, in equal measures.

Back in 2006 these two forces combined – well, of sorts. Interpol skinsman Sam Fogarino and Swervedriver’s voice Adam Franklin, linked by a mutual friend, formed the Setting Suns, later changing their creative collective’s name to Magnetic Morning soon after. They released a self titled EP in 2007, followed by their only album A.M. late in 2008. The music has divided - never moreso than in the two heavyweights of internet music, Pitchfork and Drowned in Sound, which raped and raved respectively. Anyway, make up your own mind. It may not eclipse anything the two members' day jobs have put out, but it is worthy of airplay in its own right. It drones along, but with a weightlessness that positively shimmers, with the occasional guttural squall to quell that Swervedriver thirst... Im a bit of a fan, anyways.

Oh, and futher Swervedriver news - Adam Franklin continues to pump out the solo stuff. I Could Sleep For A Thousand Years comes out later this year through Second Motion.

Magnetic Morning - Motorway

Magnetic Morning - Indian Summer