After courting a cult following with her underground EPs Drug Music, On My Way to the Listening Party, and subsequent singles, the ever-mysterious Magi Merlin (MADGE-eye) is stepping into her moment with Gone Girl, her latest and most audacious effort to date. Produced by longtime collaborator and beatsmith Funkywhat, Gone Girl draws on influences from 90’s house, drum and bass, Motown, to acid-flecked hip hop. Merlin’s voice reminds you of a smoky after hours club — if the windows were shattered by bass lines, the walls leveled by 808s. The self-described “cheeky nihilist” combines jazzy scats, raps, and breakbeats together in her musical cauldron to address issues like generational angst, fake friends, the casual racism of white suburbia, and the happy thrills of hedonism.
Photo credit: Feng Jiang
