Release Date: July 17, 2025
Label: Constituent
Records
Guest Review
by Jimmy Dee
The advantage of being a
one-man band is that you know exactly what’s going on with your “fellow
musicians”; the disadvantage is that no one is there to restrain you if you go
over the top.
Magnatech is the one-man music project of Dutchman Johannes B.
Verhoef, and as soon as he plugs in his electric guitar, he’s unstoppable. On
his seventh album, 312
Magnatech Fans Can’t Be Wrong, eighteen bombastic bangers ripple
through the grooves, delivering an up-tempo surf guitar sound submerged in the
breakwater noises of a cranked-up tube reverb. The solo entertainer doesn’t
have to listen to bandmates telling him to turn his guitar down during
rehearsal. This is surf, man!
The title of the album alludes to the slogan of the 1962 hit
collection Elvis’ Golden
Records – Volume II. While Elvis Presley had “50 million fans”, who
were clearly not wrong, Magnatech has at least “312”. This figure may also
refer to record sales. Be that as it may, the borrowed title is an
understatement that suggests this artist should not be underestimated.
The industrious sound tinkerer Verhoef plays all the instruments
himself and has developed a multi-track recording process that faithfully
recreates the sound of an early-sixties combo gone off the rails. His
dedication to his craft is evident in every note, and how he achieves this is
his well-kept secret.
As with all Magnatech releases, the new album is strongly
conceptualized, full of eclectic ideas and associative playfulness. It exhibits
the eccentric whims of a pronounced sentimentalist. The titles of the
instrumental pieces are not only intended to evoke images and inspire the
listener’s imagination; the artist himself has attached strong associations to
them, mainly relating to the everyday culture of past decades or old films, as
well as to current affairs (“On the Waves of Disinformatia”).
The artist has an unusual penchant of naming songs after famous
people as a mark of admiration. With “Ladi Geisler”, he pays homage to the
German jazz and studio guitarist Ladi Geisler, whose “Knackbass” was a decisive
influence on the irresistible sound of the Bert Kaempfert Orchestra. However,
there is no trace of this in the recording. Instead, a renowned name
contributes to the fascination of an artistic vision.
Gimmicky noises such as whip cracking, rescue sirens, muezzin
prayers, flies buzzing, and cows mooing are used by Verhoef to enhance the
multidimensional stereo listening experience and add variety to the soundscape.
These unconventional sounds are a testament to his experimental approach – only
Pink Floyd used more of them.
Although Magnatech has primarily leased the surf genre, surf
culture itself is often only featured marginally, such as in emergencies (“Surf
Ambulance”), on days of penance (“Surf Apostle”), or concerning water shyness (“The
Water’s Too Cold To Surf”). Didn’t Jack O’Neill invent the wetsuit in 1952?
The music itself is far more reckless, appearing to be played
with bold impetuosity. In almost every song (four of which have already been
released on the 2024 EP Tanzkapelle)
Verhoef strums the strings masterfully in a mandolin style that is so
characteristic of surf music. Alongside the dominant guitar thunderstorm, there
is often little room for dynamic variation among the accompanying instruments.
The programmed drums are rigid, and drum rolls sometimes resemble the noise
techno of Rotterdam gabber.
Undoubtedly, the unbridled energy of surf music was given
preference over composed pieces. The album features many exciting melodic
approaches. However, sometimes the voice leading is not rounded off and leads
nowhere on the fretboard. Not even a nimbly inserted drum roll can disguise
this. As a result, much remains piecemeal. A track like “Camazotz” (named after
the fearsome bat god of the Mexican Maya people) could almost have become a
modern classic of the surf genre.
Special mention must go to the rhythmically accelerated
instrumental cover of Kyu Sakamoto’s Asian ballad “Sukiyaki”, with which the
singer from Kawasaki achieved the first – and, to date, only – Japanese number
one hit in the US in 1963.
As a true whizz kid, Verhoef didn’t even outsource the artwork.
Left to his own devices, he designed the album cover himself. To this end, he
used AI-generated images depicting him as a pig mafia boss. Magnatech fans will
find the pointed pig ears amusing. They are undoubtedly helpful for a loud listening
experience.
Track List:
01. Surf Apostle
02. Desolation Angels
03. Surf Ambulance
04. Lilith
05. Camazotz
06. Anna Loos
07. Our Mother Anatolia (türk savaş marşı)
08. Agent Fruitfly
09. Aurora Borealis
10. Ladi Geisler
11. La Lupiada
12. Sukiyaki
13. On the Waves of Disinformatia
14. Lago di Constanza
15. Manchuria
16. Holy Cow!
17. La plus belle fille du village
18. The Water’s Too Cold To Surf
