Roto's MagicAct Takes You "Into the Unknown"

“Pithy lyrics, compelling vocals, majestic guitar tones, and superb accompanists all inform this hip, seductive, and brilliantly produced CD.”  —Guitar Player Magazine

There are only two letters separating "music" and "magic," and on the aptly titled "Into the Unknown" by Roto's MagicAct, the distance seems even more immaterial, an ace of hearts slipped between the worlds of sound, song and audio sleight of hand. Conceived and written by the former Mr. Bungle and Air (French Band) multi-instrumentalist and singer known as Roto (aka James Rotondi, the guitar ace behind the Grassy Knoll, Jettatura and the Cringe), "Into the Unknown" is a neo-classic rock album writ large, a 14-song "continuous sound" journey, blending ambitious songs and evocative sound design, in the grand tradition of ‘70s rock epics like Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon. 

But while the six-minute closer "Heart Stops" certainly pays homage to Floyd's languid space-rock, "Into the Unknown" rides equally on a spirited wave of literate power-pop, tuneful alt-country and even reimagined southern rock, to emerge with a unique distillation of urbane artists like Elvis Costello, Jon Brion, Alex Chilton, Gram Parsons, Sufjan Stevens, Jellyfish, The Doors, and Harry Nillsson. 

Shot through with Roto's incendiary electric and acoustic guitar playing, the album is equally noteworthy for the stellar contributions of the Magic Act, a collective of 15 top-tier players from New York, L.A., San Francisco and Austin, including drummers Shawn Pelton (Sheryl Crow, SNL) and Matt Chamberlain (Tori Amos, David Bowie), guitarists Joe Gore (Tom Waits, PJ Harvey) and Paul Lacques (Bonedaddies, 00 Spy Car), cellist Julia Kent (Antony & the Johnsons) pianist John Deley (Dido) and many more.

Produced by acclaimed engineer/producer Bryce Goggin, who's helmed notable albums for Spacehog, Apples in Stereo, Joseph Arthur and Phish, "Into the Unknown" was constructed at Trout Recording in Brooklyn between December 2012 and April 2013, mixed in Los Angeles by Eddie Jackson (Delta Rae), and mastered back in Manhattan by Andy Van Dette at Masterdisk. The album will be released in a deluxe CD package with an eight-page lyric booklet, featuring cover art by acclaimed painter Zelda Devon—of Vertigo Comics’ “The Unwritten” fame—photographs by the legendary Tim White and former Morrison Hotel curator Rick Edwards, and images drawn from Christine Payne-Towler’s “Tarot of the Holy Light.”   

Even with all this expertise on hand, of course, it's the singer and the songs that need to deliver the ultimate "reveal," and Roto's warm, soaring voice and smart, soulful lyrics tackle territory from intimate, artful love songs ("Into the Unknown") to brazenly smart-ass glam-rockers ("Faraway Lands") to ironic but carefully considered takes on middle-class despair ("Happier Than Ever"), media corruption ("Hot News"), guests who won't leave ("Strays") and even the perils of corporate skullduggery ("The Old Trapdoor"). Cultural references abound, from Lord Byron, sweet tea, Aleister Crowley, the Mojave desert, Machiavelli, ‘70s sitcom “Bewitched,” and “elephants dancing on their toes.” No wonder critic Ashley Khan applauded Roto for “a wit worthy of Warren Zevon and Ray Davies.” A member for the last three years of Bob Schneider's weekly "Song Machine," a songwriter's cabal (recently profiled in The New York Times) that has counted Jason Mraz, Ari Hest, and Matt Nathanson among its alums, Roto turned out a 100 songs in as many weeks, from which the fifteen tracks on "Into the Unknown" were culled, pruned, expanded and fleshed out. 

With recent shows at New York’s Bowery Electric and Pete’s Candy Store, LA’s Genghis Coen and Maggie May’s, and an upcoming showcase at Big Red Sun during this year’s SxSW festival, Roto’s Magic Act is also showing that music and magic are natural partners, as he conjures fire, makes objects disappear, and draws his audience into incantations and dreamscapes, all while making them laugh like some kind of sardonic shaman. Now you see it . . .!


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