"Focus on the Magick" is the first song on
JEFF the Brotherhood's 13th album, and it provides a keynote for a decidedly spacy affair. Proceeding to an indie rock riff that's grounded by Teutonic rhythms, it's not funky as much as a pulse that allows the group to plaster the track with the occasional odd flair. It's tasteful and vaguely strange without being odd, and it opens the door to another 11 similar flights of fantasy.
JEFF pieced together
Magick Songs over the course of several months, whittling down lengthy experimental jam sessions to a lengthy, vaguely experimental album that's purportedly some kind of concept album. Perhaps a plot can be divined by parsing the elliptical lyrics, but the true narrative is within the music, which begins floating somewhere in space and ends crashing back on Earth. Initially, it seems like a live score for the cult animated film Fantastic Planet, but that illusion is shattered by the fuzzed-out crunch of "The Mother," which seems designed for a Heavy Metal sequel. In other words,
Magick Songs provides a genuine journey, and that propulsion is enough to power
JEFF the Brotherhood through the moments when they indulge in hazy pastiche, assembling a washed-out watercolor version of '70s sci-fi that was already a faded memory by the time of their birth. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine