Magnetic Ghost - Loss Molecules (Self-Released)

The musical project of Andrew Larson, Minneapolis band Magnetic Ghost is set to release its newest album, Loss Molecules, a fantastically hazy collection of doom-ridden drones and ethereal musings. The album is most obviously influenced by shoegaze acts like Low and Sonic Youth, but there’s also a more melancholic gothic element that imbues songs like “Vanish / Vanishing” with a Joy Division dirge-like quality. The trippier moments that inhabit the record now and again also make it fit somewhat into more psychedelic families as well, albeit as a somewhat misunderstood black sheep.

The band works best when Larson builds the songs into rapturous hymns from a choir of one, rather than attempting to imitate the dynamics of a full-sized orchestra. Songs that are more obviously the creation of a single individual, end up being quite hauntingly beautiful in their solemnity, and are nothing short of rhapsodic to the listener. “Grand Canyon” gradually builds up into a deafening crescendo—a paean to anxiety and isolation. The album, and especially the closer “Total Eclipse,” feel almost left-of-center enough to qualify as outsider art, and there’s a Daniel Johnston element to it that is captivating if not harrowing to listen to. Loss Molecules is out November 18th.