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Stream Majical Cloudz’s Fatalist Electro-Ballad ‘Childhood’s End’

majical cloudz, impersonator

On “Childhood’s End,” the death-obsessed first single from Magical Cloudz’s upcoming album, Impersonator (out May 21 via Matador Records), Montreal songwriter Devon Welsh repeatedly sings, “Can you see me caving in? / Weighing down, weighing down… It’s weighing down / On me.” And yet his robust vocals sound so confident. 

So it’s with confidence that Welsh presents his bruised, minimalist approach to writing and recording Impersonator:

In the last few years there’s been a massive explosion of amazing music made with computers, samplers and other electronic equipment. The possibilities became nearly endless and musicians indulged those possibilities. I love that kind of music but it also started to overwhelm me. I wasn’t cut out for the maximalist expressions of that style. So I took a break from music, and when I started again it was to make music that barely existed and felt like stillness more than movement. Where the songs could be more about humanness. I love all forms of electronic music, techno, house, rave, hip-hop, but I never want to feel like the music I’m making is just about stylistic play. The easiest way for me to do that is try to make something without obvious movement; where the music isn’t overstuffed sonically or referentially, it’s emptied out as much as possible. So the vision for Impersonator was to communicate a lot with as little as possible. It’s not meant to energize and turn you out to the world, it’s meant to do the opposite; it’s more like a cocoon.

Stream “Childhood’s End” below, or download it here. Track list and tour dates follow below.

Impersonator track list:

1. “Impersonator”
2. “This Is Magic”
3. “Childhood’s End”
4. “I Do Sing for You”
5. “Mister”
6. “Turns Turns Turns”
7. “Silver Rings”
8. “Illusion”
9. “Bugs Don’t Buzz”
10. “Notebook”

Majical Cloudz 2013 tour dates (with Youth Lagoon):

April 24 – Austin, TX @ The Mohawk
April 25 – Dallas, TX @ The Loft
April 26 – Houston, TX @ Fitzgerald’s
April 27 – New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jacks
April 28 – Birmingham, AL @ The Bottletree
April 30 – Orlando, FL @ The Social
May 1 – Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West
May 2 – Nashville, TN @ Mercy Lounge
May 3 –  Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle
May 4 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
May 8 –  Hamden, CT @ Spaceland Ballroom
May 10 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
May 13 – Toronto, ON @ The Great Hall
May 14 – Columbus, OH @ A&R Bar
May 15 – Chicago, IL @ Metro
May 16 – Madison, WI @ Majestic Theater
May 17 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line