“Oh, absolutely—there were years; it was a constant, paralyzing thought,” bassist/ percussionist John Famiglietti laughs when asked if there were ever days when it felt as though HEALTH wouldn’t be able to put Death Magic, the band’s follow-up to 2009’s Get Color, to bed. “You definitely don’t wanna take this long to put out an album.”
Other ways the Los Angeles quartet spent the six-year gulf: switching labels from Lovepump United to Loma Vista; creating an atmospheric, demonic soundtrack for Max Payne 3; scoring the Lexus Design Disrupted event at 2013 Fashion Week. Yet, Death Magic was gestating throughout, and the finished product includes a handful of songs written shortly after HEALTH wound down the Get Color world tour in 2011.
From its 2007 self-titled debut forward, an eerie sinuousness has personified the HEALTH aesthetic, with cacophonous clatter, bleak post-punk and brittle synth-pop smashed together into thrilling quagmires. While the furious noise rock of HEALTH gave way to Get Color’s more accessible confidence, Death Magic might represent a fulcrum of the band’s potential. Electrifying “Stonefist” and the industrial squirm of “Flesh World (UK)” are less experiments than proper, hummable songs, with Jake Duzsik’s singing front and center for the fi rst time. A forthright introspection reigns, from the romantic confl ict that powers “Dark Enough” and “L.A. Looks” to arena-ready existential dilemma “Life.”
“On the earlier albums, there were no themes, because we wanted the lyrics to fit the aesthetic of the music,” says Famiglietti. “On the first album, Jake didn’t write anything personal; the lyrics were cryptic. On the second album, they were slightly more personal, like vignettes.” Catching Depeche Mode live proved to be a revelation, and a blueprint: “They would have extremely direct lyrics that don’t sound stupid—relatable lyrics that were dark, but sound cool,” says Famiglietti. “Relatable lyrics in a way that isn’t stupid, pandering or cynical.”
Death Magic’s warmer timbre is a result of marination and collaboration. Duzsik, Famiglietti, guitarist/percussionist Jupiter Keyes and drummer Benjamin Jared Miller worked closely with the Haxan Cloak, Andrew Dawson and Lars Stalfors, who produced, engineered and o ffered advice. HEALTH was ready to listen.
“A lot of the songs we’d had for a while, and we were in a rut,” says Famiglietti. “It’s really helpful when someone has an idea who’s not in the band, though there were ideas that we vetoed. There were tons. One big thing was removing elements, keeping things really simple, and leaving a lot of melodic space.” That second concept is in evidence on first single “New Coke,” where astringence and starry drift coexist in equal measure, and in those startling moments on “Hurt Yourself” where choirs echo up through endorphic synthesizer waves. A world tour is up next, Famiglietti says, and plans are in the works for a third remix album, though he won’t divulge details.
“We have two remix albums already that are very good,” he says, referring to 2008’s Health/Disco and 2010’s Health::Disco2, which feature reinterpretations from the band’s first two albums. “It’s hard to live up to that.”
—Raymond Cummings
