Live Review

Magdalena Bay bring to life the bonkers story of 'Imaginal Disk' at London's HERE at Outernet

For their second full-length, Mica Tenenbaum and Matt Levin did a concept album, based around the idea of an invented evolutionary missing link, by which the process of becoming human meant having a disk inserted into your forehead for a software upgrade. Mica’s character in this story rejects the disk, and the album follows her journey of learning to be human. It’s a corker of a sci-fi novel, and works incredibly well when paired with their futuristic synth pop. But what does it look like?

Words:Abigail Firth

Photos:Patrick Gunning

Stepping downstairs into London’s HERE at Outernet, you’re met with a fantastical scene projecting from the screens at the back of the stage; blue skies and a CD sun that, erm, resembles a Beyblade, and two chrome hands reaching out to touch it at either side. On the stage itself stands a magic mirror with angel wings (remember when we mentioned hallucinogenics?).

The album is played in full, in order, for maximum immersion. On opener ‘She Looked Like Me!’, Mica is immediately commanding, with her half-whispered, half-screeched vocals and total theatricality, bounding around the stage and still grabbing focus despite everything else going off on it. The chronological setlist lends itself to an even spread of big moments, like the recent crossover hit ‘Image’ arriving in the first ten minutes, the rock opera feeling ‘Death & Romance’ a couple of tracks later.

Occasional slips into the ‘Mercurial World’, their debut album from 2021, bolster the big hits from their follow up record; the synth disco of ‘Secrets (Your Fire)’ and video game inspired ‘You Lose!’ fill the gap between ‘Image’ and ‘Death & Romance’. Later on, the heavy club track ‘Chaeri’ leads into the disjointed funk of ‘That’s My Floor’ and the equally ethereal, but for very different reasons, ‘Dreamcatching’ and ‘Angel on a Satellite’ are paired towards the end.

The journey is told through increasingly bizarre on stage costume changes, with Mica bounding out in a blue parachute pant number and adorning herself with a sunflower face mask, before switching to a similar red suit accompanied by what can only be described as a fire cape, and finishing the set in a white dress and angel wings. It’s a bit school play, but come on, we’re watching a live rendition of an album that imagines the missing link as an alien, you can’t help but marvel at the ridiculousness.