First Look: Magistrates

It seems like only months ago that everyone was beginning to lose their shit about “Gravity’s Rainbow”, “Atlantis To Interzone” and Klaxons’ whole futurelove dance-rock sound, but the influence of the Great Klaxons Takeover of 2007 has already begun to manifest itself in a new wave of like-minded British rock acts. First there was the Author bursting onto the scene with “Taxi” late last year, and now here we have Magistrates, who sound like Klaxons squaring off with Prince, all frantic group vocals and glossy falsettos. The Essex-based quartet remain relatively unknown in the London indie scene, but with a slot supporting Black Kids’ sold-out ICA show later this week and their name skipping across the radar of more and more A&R folks around the industry, you better believe this is a band to keep a close eye on in 2008. I’ve even heard one industry head say he thinks they’re the best new band he’s heard since Vampire Weekend, but I’ll leave that for you to decide. Here’s “The Inbetweens”, the finest cut off the band’s phenomenal three-track demo, the rest of which you can and should check out on their MySpace.
MP3: “The Inbetweens” (Demo) - Magistrates [exclusive]
In other news, we DJ’d Apocalypso at the Old Queen’s Head last Saturday and I think it’s safe to say we made a pretty excellent debut. Things were helped significantly by the fact that we got 20 or so of our friends heavily boozed up and had them pad the audience and dance their balls off, but we held our own on the decks too despite some initial technical difficulties. We played a good 15 tracks or so including a few easy crowd favorites, but this one in particular went off unexpectedly well. Sadly we had to play it in 128 kbps because as far as I can tell it doesn’t exist in 320 anywhere, so if you’ve somehow got the hook up drop us a line, will you?
MP3: “What Am I Fighting For?” (LA Priest Remix) - Unklejam

March 10th, 2008 at 11:40 am
The Magistrates song is pretty sweet.. I think I’d have to hear some more before passing judgment on them though.
March 10th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Hey,
Thanks for the heads up, the magistrates song is fantastic…
The other two from the demo (can be heard on myspace) have charm too!
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=163000158
March 10th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
I think you could probably throw in JT with those Magistrates ’sound likes’.
March 11th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
These are very cool, thank you, you’ve made my night!!!
March 13th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Nice Unklejam song. Is an all electronic mini-M3 compilation in the works?
March 14th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Are you based in London?
March 17th, 2008 at 6:27 am
I like those Magistrates demo’s, I can see them becoming popular pretty soon with the state of music at the moment
March 17th, 2008 at 6:42 am
Oh the 80s eyewear. Too cool for school.
Can the hip kids resurrect 80s hair metal? Now that’s a challenge for the Camden set.
March 26th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
CONTEST FOR A BAND TO WIN $150K
Starting today and running until May 15, 2008, the music media and social-networking website WOOZYFLY.COM will be hosting an unsigned band contest entitled WOOZY IDOL, offering all unsigned bands a chance to win a $150,000 RECORDING, DISTRIBUTION, and PROMOTION contract.
woozyfly.com to learn more about the contest.
April 19th, 2008 at 10:17 am
Heya…. I’ve got a copy of the Unkle Jam remix if ya keen! I’ve got it on CD… they’ve been dropped and broken up now, so it’s a rarity!
Email me and I’ll get it to you. Got loads of stuff that could be good for your blog too. Talk soon.
Andrew Friendly
April 26th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Only you could drop a cut in 128 and have it go off, man. Be sure to send me a 320 when that chap hits you up with it!