Magical Mistakes – “Laid Out”

Erik Luebs of Magical Mistakes first rode into our and Decoder’s life in a van on the crest of a wave of goodwill. Liz and I received forewarning thanks to Jordan Lee of Mutual Benefit, who’d been crafting that good sentiment and positivity on his own before joining up with producer/percussionist Luebs, Cameron Potter of Little Spoon, and well-traveled violinist Jake Falby for a round of touring. They hadn’t come to play a show, but we all enjoyed sharing a mid-tour rest stop and I even managed to sneak in some complaints about the abominable job I was holding down at the time. Plenty has transpired in the Mutual Benefit camp since then and Cameron has had several tapes released, but its only in the last several months that the next evolution of Luebs’ Magical Mistakes project has begun to emerge, with a new EP planned for Canadian imprint/collective King Deluxe; presumably he also showed up there some morning on a wave of good will, he’s so damned nice. As of now though, he’s in the lead-up to an American “Spring Fever” tour with fellow Japanese artists Seiho and And Vice Versa, so the projects latest teaser “Laid Out” serves the dual purpose of laying ground work for that and the EP post-tour. Released just two weeks after sharing the similarly tempered but less gregarious official tour promo from Magical Mistakes, “Forest Floors,” and following a long spate of remixes and one-offs, his latest single has a more willful energy that stands out alongside prior work. It excels most for its almost disorienting balance, never losing focus as the scope of Luebs’ evocative looped meditations discharge their associative payloads broadly across mellow woodwinds, a stalwart beat, delicately abrasive textures crusted along just the right sounds, and the bright interjections of all and sundry (which I suspect most constitutes the heart of his considered whimsy). Watch King Deluxe for release updates and stop by one of Erik’s show if you’re around from March 26th to April 6th.