Rubinos, Xenia

Rubinos, Xenia

Magic Trix

Ba Da Bing!

On initial listen to Magic Trix, the first album by Brooklynite Xenia Rubinos, one might feel as though one is being tased (bro). Little compares to the sharp, thick spine of keyboard sound that shoots out from the very first moments. An oblique assemblage of uncommon rhythms, forceful singing and dance-’til-you-puke styles combine to make Magic Trix one of the most exciting debuts in years. Surprisingly, the record’s aggressive sound is achieved without the use of guitars. Rubinos, with the assistance of drummer / sound magician Marco Buccelli, creates a dozen songs that bring to mind the adventurous spirit and whacked-out mentality found in the best moments of Rip, Rig and Panic, DNA and The Contortions. Rubinos expands on her Cuban, Puerto Rican and American roots, and while the songs shoot off to new stratospheres, they never lose the sense that the music is at its core two people banging on things, making a racket. It was such a racket that their home production of the album was often interrupted by paintings falling from the walls of their apartment as they recorded. Rubinos and Buccelli can also fully replicate the record live, thanks in part to the latter’s makeshift “analogic distorted snare.” In order to alter his snare sound, he circuits the drum through an array of reverb and distortion pedals, projecting the sound through an amp at his side. Rubinos’s songs cover intimate topics of family and travel. “Help” is based on a family legend of a woman flown...