i.e. crazy’s electric folklore explores the qualities of individuals on the brink; the obsessive lover, the amnesiac killer, the indifferent stranger, the stifled child. Exploring the neurotic horror of the banal erupting symbolically and violently in their home country of New Zealand, i.e. crazy (aka Maggie Magee - aka Frances Libeau – formerly Claire Duncan of Dear Time’s Waste) roves through an unsettling and perverse array of human behaviors with a critical yet empathetic gaze, delving to scrape, sample and haunt the dregs of dirt we’d rather were left untouched.
Recorded between Magee’s home and the old family beach house in South Auckland, Non Compos Mentis sees Magee explore the refractions of small-town relationships, subjectively inhabiting the role of villain, victim and detective. As the mythic wandering womb travels around the body to hysteric effect, the songs duck in and out of allusory narrative alcoves. Teasing out moral standpoints with delicious care and a perverse pleasure, the boundaries of prescribed “sanity” are blurred. Where the real Maggie lies is anyone’s guess.
Written & produced by Maggie Magee. Performed with Seth Frightening, Catherine Cumming and Shab Orkestra at Bach 62, Second Avenue Sleep-out & Clarks' Beach, Waiau Pa, Aotearoa.
Mixed by Sean Kelly.
Mastered by James Goldsmith.
Art direction by Maggie Magee.
Design by Alexander Wenet.
Kia ora to contributors, friends and whānau. Thank you to Sean, Catherine, Alex, Steve, James G, Benjii at MUZAI & Regan at Melancholy Records.
Synthesising neo-folk, industrial sonics & power balladry
through exploratory modes of aural collage & narrative songwriting, i.e. crazy harks to the avant-garde provocations of Laurie Anderson, Aotearoan post-punk & the melancholic sehnsucht of 1980s pop music....more
supported by 4 fans who also own “Non Compos Mentis”
So happy to stumble across this on vinyl while visiting NZ - and the accompanying mag is a piece of art in itself. Fab collection of brilliant songs from a host of super-talented artists released by one of my fave labels. Did I mention how happy I am? paulienz
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