Year : 2025
Style : Melodic Rock , Synthwave , AOR
Country : United States
Audio : 320 kbps + all scans
Size : 118 mb
Bio:
Super melodic AOR project of Jon Siejka, who resides in New York City.Magic Dance is the name of his project that he uses to supply all us 80's synthpop nuts with his blissfull synthpop music. BUT he has now decided to step into the AOR world and has given us this new EP and I LOVE IT!!!An albums worth of this would suit me fine.
Album:
I first became aware of Magic Dance when their track ‘When We Were Young’ was featured on Platinum Rock Radio back in 2016. The track blew me away and I immediately purchased their album ‘Vanishings‘, which would go on to be one of my top albums of that year. Frontiers Records would soon snatch them up and release two more impressive albums before going on a hiatus after 2020.Now the band is back with ‘No Way To Surrender‘. For clarity, I’m going to reference Jon Siejka going forward rather than the band, as it’s his project and, outside of a few musicians who assist, Jon is the lyricist, producer, vocalist, guitarist, and keyboardist.Jon has gone in a slightly different direction with this release. The band always had upbeat songs, but lyrically the songs leaned dark and after the third album ‘Remnants‘, Jon embraced more horror elements with his other band The Runaway Wild, releasing an album and an EPs worth of material.With ‘No Way To Surrender‘, the synth drenched upbeat tracks are back but this time with an upbeat, fight to survive theme that could easily be played over any number of 80s action movie montages. The song titles alone convey the lyrical narrative.Opening track ‘Don’t Give Up’ delivers exactly what I expected. An upbeat, punchy synth drenched track with underlying guitars giving the song a bit of an edge.The title track was unexpected. A musical night and day contrast from the opener. The song sounds like it was a holdover from The Runaway Wild sessions and is different from anything else on the album. It has a bit of a Battle Beast dark synth vibe, similar to their keyboard centric tunes. After listening to the entire album, this is the song I immediately returned to. I dig the darker tones, making this a favored track.With ‘I’m Gonna Fight (Still Breathing)’, the guitars jump to the forefront. A pure rocker that exudes intensity. That never give up, take on the world spirit is infectious. One listen will make you either run faster on that treadmill or push the gas pedal a little harder.While all of the tracks are great, there are a few I would like to highlight. ‘Point of No Return’ has unbridled urgency with the fastest tempo on the album. Love the use of keyboard effects that were similar to the ones he used in his previous track ‘The Mirror’. It’s subtle, but present.The closing sax on ‘Blue Lights, Black Skies’, courtesy of Juan Torres Fernández is not overtly complex, but slides in at the end perfectly. Speaking of hired hands, there are several guitar players here to assist Jon. With no disrespect to any of them, I dug the solos that Benjamin Moore constructed on ‘I’m Gonna Fight’ and ‘Bigger, Stronger, Faster, Wilder’.Finally, although it was initially released in November of last year, I still dig the hell out of ‘The Dead Boys’ after all this time. A song that never left my YouTube playlist, that sound similar to what he produced on Vanishings had me anticipating this album’s release. A top song for sure.There are three ballads but the one that stood out the most was ‘Feels Like Goodbye’. My favorite ballad Jon previously recorded was ‘So Far Away From Home’, but this track tops it. The harmonies match with the keyboards and synths perfectly. The chorus consists of just a refrain of the title, but there’s so much passion to it that it’s all that is needed to be effective. Simply beautiful.As great as this album is, there are two aspects that could have sent this collection of songs over the top. The first is the mixing. On the last three Magic Dance releases, the mix had the guitar prominently leading the melody. Jon has decided here to have the keyboards take the lead, with the guitar as support on most tracks. This is more reminiscent of an earlier sound of the band. The mixing of the last three albums are more to my liking.The second assessment is the ordering. If the album was released as a vinyl record, it would have a clear Side A and B. Side A would be all high energy fight songs. Side B would be more introspective and reminiscent. The three ballads are all located here, and the album slows down considerably. He may have consciously ordered the album this way, but mixing the fight songs throughout would have created a more balanced album for me.While I liked his side project The Runaway Wild, I was hoping for a return of this band and, after five years, I was not disappointed. If I had to rank his last four albums, I would put this release ahead of New Eyes. Vanishings and Remnants have songs that are so special they will always be hard to top. Jon comes out swinging for the fences with this release and constructed some real belters and heartfelt numbers that exude passion in both extremes. All previous fans will embrace this album. For those who have never heard of Magic Dance, certainly start with this album and support an artist who gives his all to his songs.
Line Up:
All Songs, Vocals, Synths & Programming by Jon Siejka
Guitar solo in “I Wanna Know” by Tim Mackey
Tracklist:
01. Don't Give Up
02. No Way To Surrender
03. I'm Gonna Fight (Still Breathing)
04. Bigger, Stronger, Faster, Wilder
05. Point Of No Return
06. Battle Lines
07. I Know You Will Survive
08. Back To The Sun
09. Feels Like Goodbye
10. The Dead Boys
11. The Loveless Game
12. Blue Lights, Black Skies
Download links for all albums only on our blog here: http://goodmetalandhar.do.am/
