Majical Cloudz stages sit in

The unusual, mid-set request took little salesmanship. All it took was a dour proclamation.

The second half of Majical Cloudz’s Monday night in-store performance at Other Music would be “slow and morose,” frontman Devon Welsh explained, offering his rationale behind asking the 60 or so people in attendance to sit on the floor. The first three songs were not exactly a party.

The Montreal duo’s final four songs delivered on Welsh’s promise, doubling down on intensity, atmosphere, and lyrical frankness. Toward the end of “Silver Rings”, Welsh rose from the floor, shouting “I don’t think about dying alone” with a force that belied the intimate setting.

Majical Cloudz played Other Music on the Lower East Side a day in advance of the release of their new record, Impersonator, out on indie giant Matador Records. The vocal/keyboard duo of Welsh and Matthew Otto incorporate the former’s stark baritone and death-obsessed words with the latter’s sparse, repetitive key strokes that, when wedded together, excavate the glory of life from the clutches of despair.

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