The Magnetic Pull

The Magnetic Pull

by Tiffany Bentley

(Sounds of Syracuse, Table Hopping Magazine)

The “magnetic pull” of the ocean always hypnotized their friend. This same friend’s early death has inspired a stream of consciousness created in their music. The original electronic assembly, The Magnetic Pull, borrowed their name from a poem penned by Trish Taylor, the girlfriend of Kris Campbell, a close friend who passed away at an early age in a drowning accident. The Syracuse trio creates a euphoric, yet mindful experience with their music while honoring a friend in the name of the project.

The music is anything but pop, but has the same strange appeal that a pop song might have. Individual songs are only discerned in transitions that are as seamless as water, and unpredictable and captivating as the ocean. Digital manipulation and sound sampling by Jake LaManna, accompanied by Jordan Glaski’s keyboarding technique maintain a melodic flow that is susceptible to variance at any moment.

The group formed in 2005, and added live drummer Brady Dembroske in 2008. Prior to Brady’s emergence, drum beats were only produced electronically by Jake. Jake now jokes that he is really not needed anymore for digital percussion, and feels that he should be able to sit down during certain sets because the rest of the group gets to sit down at their instruments.

However, like all good DJs, he stands stoically at his table. Jake’s sampling adds the uniqueness that sets aside the music from just random play. From the voice sets of Howard Stern character Riley Martin to exact length orgasm sound clips from Meg Ryan’s performance on When Harry Met Sally, any sound is game for Jake’s exploitation.
“I thought this was a family show,” an audience member once commented to Jake after hearing the lengthy screaming montage. “Well the movie was rated PG-13,” he answered.

Despite the lack of lyrics in their songs, the Magnetic Pull is a verbally-oriented bunch. Jordan constantly conjures up different quirky word strings for song titles that usually have nothing to do with the song itself. The rest of the band credits him with witty song names like the Silence and the Space and Demon Song (Demo Song with an N added). They in fact jest that they often get texts from Jordan at random times with new title ideas. For example, during the monumental six overtime Syracuse basketball game, Brady received a text from Jordan stating a possible song name as “Boeheim’s Breaking.”

The Coming of Tan, a book by Riley Martin, voiceover for “The Silence and the Space,” discusses alien abductions and the afterlife, topics discussed on Riley’s radio bit for Hoard Stern. Riley is now a Magnetic Pull fan since the group confronted him for work to add alien presence to their songs.
“According to him,” Brady says, “We’ll be the only band rocking out on the mother ship.” Riley has given them limited edition tokens that guarantee their place in the afterlife when the whole thing goes down. Before that happens, however, you can catch them physically at The Dewitt Shire April 11th and during impromptu visits at Mac’s Bad Art Bar open mic nights on Thursdays in Mattydale.