At Start-Track we like to invite our favourite artists to create guest playlists for us to share on our ever-expanding Spotify profile. Across the playlist’s 30 songs, these artists share music they’ve been listening to recently, as well as some which have shaped their own art and philosophies.
This new playlist is from acclaimed LA-based multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, and photographer Jeni Magaña. This unique and versatile artist is perhaps best-known for her work on bass for Lady Lamb, and more recently for Mitski, which included playing on this year’s “Coyote, My Little Brother” / “Buffalo Replaced” single.
However, she found her way onto the Start-Track radar earlier this year through her solo Magana output when she released the brilliant and ambitious ‘Teeth’ LP via Audio Antihero (check out their Introducing Labels profile and Guest Mixtape).
Here’s what we had to say about her back in April:
“The record is a meandering journey through delicate storytelling and luscious, psychedelic textures…Album closer ‘Girl in Chains’ is like peak Sharon Van Etten with its driving guitars and supreme powerful vocal delivery…‘Teeth’ is a refuge and an escape, meant to be lived inside of and made at home in.” (read the full Start-Track review here)
Accomplished and eclectic, Magana’s output has spanned Indie Rock, Folk, Pop, Field Recordings, and Electronic. She’s even been affiliated with Start-Track favourites before, including covering “Oceans” by CHUCK, and getting the remix treatment from Frog.
While the Witchy Rock sound of ‘Teeth’ was in some ways the most sonically challenging work of her career to date, it was nonetheless a moving and infectious collection of songs and sounds, some of which even hinted at the gorgeous Pop music that she creates as one-half of pen pin with Emily Moore.
Her most recent release, October’s ‘DREAMS,’ is a complete left-turn though. This multimedia project was released via UK-based experimental label Hand Drawn Hand, and this cassette and book of her photography sees the artist merge her dream diary with Ambient electronics as she explores the space between sleep and waking.
30 Tracks Picked by Magana:
In support of this new release, Magana has kindly put together a 30-track playlist of Ambient music. This haunting collection includes pieces by Gia Margaret, Broken Shoulder, Brian Eno, Hiroshi Yoshimura, and others, in addition to recordings from ‘Breathing,’ Magana’s previous ambient effort.
There’s much to discover in this playlist so please be sure to listen, and also to subscribe to the Start-Track Spotify channel here. You can find a full list of guest playlists here.
Magana’s ‘Teeth’ and ‘DREAMS’ albums are both out now via Audio Antihero and Hand Drawn Hand respectively.
There are also four singles from her pen pin project available now.