Magic Wands

Synthy boy-girl electro-pop, the shimmery transparency of voile curtain melodies blowing around in a warm breeze, the snap of drum machines buried under pillow-y layers of keyboard tones...Magic Wands is dreamy to the point of dissolution in a not unpleasant way, as on wave-washed, synthetically rhumba-beated "Aloha Moon," or spiralling (very Pains of Being Pure-ish) "Kaleidoscope Hearts." But I like this geographically disparate duo (Chris in Nashville, Dexy in LA), best at their most emphatic. That's "Kiss Me Dead" buried late on Magic Wand's debut, which puts edge and defiance under all that sonic reassurance and sounds like a particularly well-adjusted Jesus & Mary Chain tune...or a darker iteration of Teenage Fanclub. More of this and we've got something.