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phoning home: Alien electro-pop defies expectations.

One of the most highly-sought and requested albums to listen and review, Magdalena Bay’s Imaginal Disk was in among many tier listings of last years’ highly sprung and cagey music affair. While the assortment of where the album placed was different from pier to pier, the soupy simulation of ’80s-esque alien pop was not denied its frontier of immediate expose.

Of course, the jilting j-peg coding of Bay has been on dazzling display for years. Many mixes followed post-pandemic before we were hit with Mercurial World in 2021 but not before the reverb’d and shrewd Killshot was introduced – arguably the variable take off that Magdalena needed and undoubtedly deserved.

While Killshot was often one-dimensional and contained within its own cross-fades, the files on Imaginal Disk are far more freeing in code and colour. Seducing synths, magnetic drums, throbbing and swirling soundscapes of the terrestrial. Death & Romance, Image and Killing Time are all seem-less classics and immensely fun to listen to.

Elsewhere, She Looked Like Me! is an astute time-piece recording of future nostalgic while Fear, Sex is a wandering dazzle of adventure. It’s equally fresh and transparent to the new understudies of music but it’s also perfectly balanced as it craves a nod from former pop icons like Madonna. It’s no wonder Imaginal Disk got so much attention throughout the glitzy summer months of 2024 – despite all the radiant noise her fellow female pop stars were getting in the same breath.

While Charli XCX may be the soundtrack of the night into a dizzy comedown grabbing all the headlines, Magdalena is the colourful 8-bit sunrise hardly anyone talks about – but still know it’s there.

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