When they appeared, with a string of obliquely quirky tunes,
Magoo were hailed as the British
Guided By Voices or
Pavement.
The "lo-fi" spun by Andrew Rayner and Owen Turner actually defies
classification, as it spans noise-rock and Brit-pop with equal indifference.
The early EPs,
Mudshark (Noisebox, 1995),
Robot Carnival (Noisebox, 1995),
Eye Spy (Noisebox, 1996),
later collected on Close Continental D.N.A. (Noisebox, 1998)
were not particularly successful in imitating their American uncles.
The 23 short tracks of
The Soateramic Sounds of Magoo (Chemikal Underground, 1997)
showcase a poppier (A to Z and Back Again, psychedelic
(The Queen of the 8-Bus Singers, Playing Cards With the Stars)
sound.
An excessive dose of self-indulgence turns the album into little more than
an amateur's sketchbook.
Holy Smoke and Swiss Border Escape, the leading singles for
Vote the Pacifist Ticket Today (Chemikal Underground, 1998), are
the typical jokes that don't sound funny anymore. Others have been doing
the same things for many years. The catchy Pink Dust may
betray the true (and not so experimental) ambitions of the band.
