The Magic Mixture
This Is the Magic Mixture

An album dismissed by the so-called rye academy critics as just another bad copy of the Cream, this record, born out of the most mysterious English underground, has actually become over the years a truly legendary album. It is sought after by those psychedelic enthusiasts who have come to appreciate its value, reevaluating the quality of the compositions and especially the performance prowess of this quartet of very young musicians.

The Magic Mixture, extremely gifted, delicate yet never banal, and highly creative, originated from a much larger student band including guitarist Jimmy Collins, later of Thunderclap Newman and Wings, and Simon Kirke, the drummer of Free and Bad Company. It is also worth noting that the drummer of the same Mixture (Jack Collins) was among those responsible for the masterpiece of the Five Day Week Straw People, before moving on to the better-known Andwella's Dream and the early hard prog phase of Andromeda. Few actually know this since he would henceforth use the pseudonym Jack McCulloch. In 1967, reduced to indeed just four members, the Magic Mixture agreed to record this album, skipping the easier route of singles, a common practice at the time especially for minor English bands; this certainly did not help them as the small independent label behind its release went out of business shortly after the publication of This Is The Magic Mixture, leaving the band practically stranded.

Additionally, the label's financial crisis forced them to record all twelve songs in little more than a day and in a London studio that was among the most rundown and less suitable for their skillful musical sleight of hand. However, the result is commendable even from an audio-phonics standpoint, with recordings performed virtually live as if it were a live show, all of which makes their only LP even more magical and sincere. Nevertheless, the tracks must be placed in their exact context, namely England in the latter half of the '60s, the time of post-beat and "European flower power," but particularly that uniquely Anglo-Saxon deviation made of imaginative lyrics and music more tied to pop than experimentation. Comparison with more known bands like Tomorrow, July, Apple, Kaleidoscope, Flower Pot Men, etc., holds good.

All songs were written by guitarist Jim Thomas for the classic "bass, drums, electric organ, lead guitar" line-up with the refined but not very powerful singing of Thomas himself; the technique used to make the voice more believable was essentially a simple reverb. The record flows smoothly through melodic moments ("I'm So Sad" and "Hey Little Girl"), bright openings toward more solar "garage" in Motor Bike Song and You, excellent solo guitar phrases (Slowly the Day), Latin-funk-sound trepidations with American influences (Urge to Leave), proto-symphonic-rock intermezzo (When I Was Young), slightly more lysergic moments ("Living on a Hill" and "Moon Beams"), where they tried to dare more, with a couple of stylistic falls toward the usual "beat demeanor" in Tomorrow's Sun and It's Alright by Me.

All in all, the LP remains a good musical blend that easily shifts from the romantic atmosphere of English psych songwriter music to overseas stylistic shores, always light but extremely reflective and comforting.