Rip Magic and chaos as a game

In the summer of 2023, rapper Tyler, the Creator was at the Standard Hotel in London to perform a DJ set. On that occasion, he spoke to Marco Pini – a member of the quintet Sorry – and his friend Felix Bayley-Higgins. The pair had set about writing a few tracks and recording a demo. Upon hearing it, Tyler, the Creator was absolutely blown away by the music, so much so that he played it during his set. This episode marked the beginning of Rip Magic’s story. The duo were later joined by bassist Pedro Takahashi and drummer Beth Boswell-Knight. Thanks to an ever-increasing number of support slots – for acts ranging from Panda Bear to Fcukers and LCD Soundsystem – the band began to expand its audience, partly due to ingenious initiatives such as quietly selling white-label copies of their unreleased single “5words”. The track was eventually released in 2026 on DFA, the label run by James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, who was brought in to produce it.

“1,2,3” is a self-produced, euphoric and unpredictable album. As the band themselves put it, it is “created by a London-based quartet fascinated by America at its most glitzy”. Rip Magic’s debut is chaotic: it veers between car chases, packed nightclubs and adverts. Vocals and soundscapes intertwine around a sound that draws on dub and dance, as well as a rock approach, though here the guitar riffs are replaced by synthesisers and samples. ‘I said five words, now I’m living inside them’ was the line repeated ad infinitum in the single ‘5words’, which became the album’s closing track. It is a pounding whirlwind set to a cadenced rhythm that, in the second half, explores unexpected arrangements. Orchestral samples and a psychedelic atmosphere, reminiscent of Beck’s most schizophrenic moments, characterise “Screwdark”, which references magazines such as *Face* and *Variety*, yet warns against a reality in which everything “is what it is not”.

With deep bass and distorted sounds, Rip Magic play with the atmosphere in “Crowd” as if they were a more nocturnal version of Glass Animals. They let themselves be seduced by the controlled din in “Spit”, and by the layers of sonic hallucinations that build up in “11:30”. The beam of light cutting through the room in “Light Over There” perfectly encapsulates the entire album in a single image: it draws the listener into the shadows, yet at times yields to the radiance of emotive vocals. The vocals, with their repetitions and falsetto, are drained away in the crescendos, as in “Slacker”, or at the end of “Rock”, a meta-track that traverses an entire spectrum of perceptions in almost five minutes. ‘Crestfall’ is more reflective, whilst ‘End Song’ is frenetic in its rhythm and in the overlapping vocals that bring it to an abrupt close. In ‘Stadium Drive’, hip-hop takes centre stage, with singing blending with spoken word. Rip Magic’s world is chaotic, at times spiralling out of control. It almost resembles our own, were it not for that sense of playfulness that we seem to have lost by now. To rediscover a little of it, simply listen to this London quartet and count to three.