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If there was ever a way to capitalise upon a successful breakout album, this should be the industry standard…
McKinley Dixon is no stranger to jazz. It courses through the veins of his catalogue, the lifeblood of his work. He uses it to his full advantage; every horn hit and saxophone wail is a jolt to the system, every pluck of double bass as warm as possible, every snare hit is as crisp as it is full. The sound of his music is equal parts frenetic and kaleidoscopic. Add on top of that his distinct charisma on the mic, which sees him injecting a dynamic ebb-and-flow time and time again. ‘Magic, Alive!’ is entirely live; a production tactic that works in Dixon’s favour: we’ll get to this soon. Where there were moments of live orchestration on ‘Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?’, the music here breathes with a kind of consciousness that hasn’t been heard on a hip hop album since, maybe, Kendrick Lamar’s ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’. I’m also reminded of a band like The Roots, fusing organic instrumentation and relentless bars on their classic works.
Now, this seems to be a bit of a concept album, a tale of grief and supernatural communication. An excerpt from the ‘Magic, Alive!’ Bandcamp page for this album reads as follows:
“It is the story of three kids who lose their best friend and wrestle with the subsequent turmoil. The essential twist, though, is that the trio wonder what they can do to bring their pal back or, at the very least, reconvene with him, so that their friendship does not end with mortality.”
With this in mind, it’s important to highlight the juxtaposition in the words that Dixon puts to paper, and the music that is being put to wax. It is as if, through the music alone, he and his buddies are trying to conjure the spirit of their deceased friend. Tonally speaking, it has a somewhat dissonant effect, even if it is subtle. The lush keys, the bold brass, and the shuffling drums all offer an upbeat counterpart to offset some of the more reflective subject matter. It’s a musical tactic as tried as it is true, yet McKinley pulls it off immaculately on every track here.
Lyrically speaking, Dixon is crafting spells, weaving them like thread into this melting pot of an album. “I could use blasphemy to do miraculous deeds”, he proclaims on ‘We’re Outside, Rejoice!’. “I’ll make it so my n***as never die”, he hollers on the hook of the title track. His words bouncing against one of the most infectious grooves on the album. McKinley might be motivated by a sense of grief, survivor’s guilt, all of the above, but what he is not going to do is let it get him down.
Ultimately, this impending magic trick is metaphorical. Obviously, I don’t think anyone needs that clarification by itself, but it also feels right to get to the heart of where this is coming from. McKinley is keeping the spirit of those he has lost alive with his music. The simple fact of the matter is; the music is the magic. Tales of learning tricks, promising miracles, it all gets channeled into one spellbinding song after another. With his new album, McKinley Dixon has pulled off the niftiest magic trick of all, you just have to be tuned-in enough to realise it.
Dan Will Review 