Michael Robert Murphy - Chaos Magick (2025) Hi-Res

Lo-Fi Psychedelia Shines as Michael Robert Murphy Launches Debut Album "Chaos Magick". Those familiar with the Merseyside music scene will need no introduction to Murphy, previously frontman and songwriter with The Wicked Whispers and Whiskey Headshot. For this, his debut solo album, Murphy has drawn widely from his home town. While he wrote all the songs, created the arrangements and played most of the instruments, he does include some of the city’s top musicians, such as Echo and the Bunnymen’s Will Sergeant and Ian Skelly, Paul Molloy and Ian Mac from The Coral. The album was recorded on the Wirral, production also handled locally by Liam Power.

Murphy’s band life is immediately recognisable in ‘Chaos Magick’, which is hardly surprising, and it is always interesting to learn what prompts an artist to go solo. If his rich psychedelia floats on into this new world, the motivation is revealing. Murphy describes his venture as “a scouse lo-fi autobiographical psychedelic odyssey”, which says it all. Each song represents a chapter in his life, the title capturing its energies, both positive and negative. Lyrically, Murphy is not afraid to dig deep, both personally and more generally. Good versus bad, how to live a better life, but all with the lucidity and honesty that have always characterised his writing. A psychedelic trip of jangly guitars around layers of sound whisk the listener from the west coast of England in 2025 to America’s west coast at least half a century earlier. It is a glorious experience.

Murphy opens with ‘Splinter In The Mind’s Eye’, a look back at his childhood. “I’m learning not to know/ What lies beyond the road/It takes so long”, he reflects on his difficulties fitting in. The reverb and loops emphasise his anxieties. ‘Lift The Curse’ sees the young Murphy falling in love, the shimmering sound over a thumping beat bring out those tumultuous emotions.

Family is very important, and with typical candour, Murphy addresses his son’s autism in ‘Like A Shadow’. Slower and dream-like, he expresses unconditional love for his son while wondering what goes on in that young mind, “In your smile there is everything, that sets you apart”. Murphy felt the loss of his mother, the last of his family, profoundly. Through the harmonies and rippling arrangements, Murphy pays tribute in ‘Prometheus Fountain’, the peak (among many other high points) of this wonderful record. It will take a heart of stone not to be moved by the chorus at a proper volume, “It feels so many miles away/ Until I’ll see your face again/ Until we catch up on a different plain”. It was Murphy’s mum who prompted his interest in how dreams might enable connection with the departed. ’In A Dream That Holds The Key’ explores this theme. The echoing vocals almost sound like a call and reply through the orchestral ether.

‘Whispers On The Wind’ mixes Murphy’s emotions on The Wicked Whispers breaking up as he misses the bond between them, but recognises it is time to move on, as made very clear in the song’s abrupt finish.

‘Chaos Magick’ is “lo-fi” only in the sense of sounding very live and immediate. Murphy admits that setting out to make a solo album did not come without a fair bit of trepidation, but has done himself and all those around him full justice. If there is a sense of catharsis about the record, we must hope that it is the first of many others rather than a one-off.