Magick Mutants

From Soft Cell Wiki
Magick Mutants
EP by Soft Cell
Cover artwork by Dave Ball
Released 3 May 2019
Recorded Dean Street Studios
Orange Girl Studios
Kick Studios
Produced Soft Cell
Label A Big Frock Rekord
Genre post punk, minimal synth
Format 7″, MP3
Related Mutant Moments
To Show You I've Been There ...
Magick Mutants (EP) is an EP by Soft Cell, released in 2019 by A Big Frock Rekord label and initially sold with limited photo book To Show You I've Been There ....

Recording[edit | edit source]

Magick Mutants EP is a ‘sequel’ release to duo's debut record – Mutant Moments, and features re-recorded versions of Soft Cell's early songs. It is also dedicated to memory of Frank Tovey, featuring a cover of his first single as Fad Gadget, “Back To Nature”.

Tracks were recorded and engineered in 3 various studios: Dean Street Studios in Soho, London (vocals), Kick Studios in Richmond (“Back To Nature”) and Orange Girl Studios in Essex (other tracks).[?]

Due to quality limitations of 7″ EP format, tracks were edited to short ‘vinyl’ versions, while full ‘master’ versions were planned to be given in digital format.[1]

Release[edit | edit source]

Initially Magick Mutants was sold exclusively with limited photo book To Show You I've Been There ..., which was printed in 1,300 copies. They were announced and become available for pre-order in October 2018,[2] while full track list of the EP was revealed in March 2019.[1][3] Dave Ball was promoting the EP with the book on radio and podcast interviews and playing some of the tracks from it.[4][5]

At first release date was stated to be April 2019,[2] but in the end it has become May 1th.[6] Upon release, purchasers of the book were also given through email an archive file containing tracks of the EP in MP3 format: full ‘master’ versions and edits for vinyl, 8 files overall.[7]

The release of the book and EP was accompanied by a launch party in Soho, London on May 2nd.[6][8]

Later in 2020 the EP has become available to buy in record stores, without the book and digital version.

Track listing[edit | edit source]

7" vinyl
A side 
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1. “Science Fiction Stories”  David BallDavid Ball 2:29
2. “Bleak Is My Favourite Cliché”  Marc AlmondDavid Ball 2:27
B side 
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1. “The Girl With The Patent Leather Face”  Marc AlmondDavid Ball 2:43
2. “Back To Nature”  Frank ToveyFrank Tovey 2:12

Personnel[edit | edit source]

  • Vocals – Marc Almond
  • Synthesizers – Dave Ball
  • Production – Soft Cell
  • Vocal engineering – Jonny Solway, Rob McFarlane (at Dean Street Studios)
  • Engineering, programming – Jon Savage (tracks A1, A2 and B1, at Orange Girl Studios), Rick Mulhall (track B2, at Kick Studios)
  • Mixing – Philip Larsen

Artwork[edit | edit source]

Being a follow up to Mutant Moments EP, Magick Mutants also features artworks by Dave Ball.[1] The front cover shows two persons with prominent similarity in appearance to a woman from “Mutant Moments” postcard (drawn by Kris Neat). As with the use of word ‘magick’ in the title, arts also feature occult symbols: unicursal hexagram, crescent moon, a triangle and pentagrams. Layout design is credited to James McWilliam.

Other versions[edit | edit source]

Promo CD version of the EP contains ‘master’ mixes and instrumental versions of featured tracks.[9]

 
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1. “Science Fiction Stories” (2019 Full Version)David BallDavid Ball 3:19
2. “Bleak Is My Favourite Cliché” (2019 Full Version)Marc AlmondDavid Ball 3:03
3. “The Girl With The Patent Leather Face” (2019 Full Version)Marc AlmondDavid Ball 4:51
4. “Back To Nature” (2019 Full Version)Frank ToveyFrank Tovey 4:00
5. “Science Fiction Stories” (2019 Instrumental Version) David Ball 3:20
6. “Bleak Is My Favourite Cliché” (2019 Instrumental Version) David Ball 2:06
7. “The Girl With The Patent Leather Face” (2019 Instrumental Version) David Ball 4:52
8. “Back To Nature” (2019 Instrumental Version) Frank Tovey 3:57

Trivia[edit | edit source]

  • “Mutant Moments” and “Magick Mutants” titles were derived from the title of famous swing song “Magic Moments”.[10]
  • The launch party of book and EP on May 2nd was also celebrating Dave Ball's 60th birthday (May 3rd).[8]
  • After the release of EP Marc Almond has revealed, that “Back To Nature” track was mixed incorrectly and it's going to receive a correction follow up trough YouTube (see more: Back To Nature).[11][12]

References[edit | edit source]

The list bellow can be scrolled
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Announcing the limited-edition ‘Magick Mutants’ vinyl EP ... (Official Soft Cell web site). 18 March 2019. (softcell.co.uk)  archived
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Soft Cell on Twitter: «To Show You I’ve Been There is the brand new official Soft Cell book ... (Official Soft Cell Twitter). 8 October 2018. (Twitter)  archived
  3. ↑ Soft Cell on Twitter: «1/2 - In May we publish our To Show You I’ve Been There book + exclusive 4-track 7" Magick Mutants EP featuring ... (Official Soft Cell Twitter). 18 March 2019. (Twitter)  archived
  4. ↑ HIT THE NORTH: FT. GUEST DAVE BALL (SOFT CELL) (Interview with Dave Ball at Boogaloo Radio). Mike Smith and Rob Owen. 2 April 2019. (Mixcloud)
  5. ↑ Dave Ball - Soft Cell (Interview with Dave Ball for the Strange Brew podcast). Jason Barnard. 7 June 2019. (thestrangebrew.co.uk)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Soft Cell - Posts (Official Soft Cell page on Facebook). 26 April 2019. (Facebook)
  7. ↑ Soft Cell - Magick Mutants | Releases. (Discogs)
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Retro Man Blog: Soft Cell "To Show You I've Been There" - Details on The New Book & Report From The Launch Party by Ian Pile. Ian Pile. 15 May 2019. (Blogger)  archived
  9. ↑ Soft Cell - Magick Mutants EP (2019, CDr). (Discogs)
  10. ↑ AVENGERS: ENDGAME, Soft Cell’s Dave Ball, Vampire Weekend and more (Interview with Dave Ball at Bigmouth podcast). Andrew Harrison and Siân Pattenden. 4 May 2019. (Audioboom)
  11. ↑ Marc Almond on Twitter: «A bit pissed that on hearing the SC version of Fad Gadgets Back to Nature ... (Official Marc Almond Twitter). 17 May 2019. (Twitter)  archived
  12. ↑ Marc Almond on Instagram: “With @robmacfarlanesound @deanststudios . Rob and Me remixing ... (Official Marc Almond Instagram). 17 May 2019. (Instagram)  archived
See more about Soft Cell!
Retrieved from "https://softcell.miraheze.org/wiki/Magick_Mutants?oldid=4466"