MARC WEIDENBAUM Reviewed for disquiet.com/ E/I magazine
MAGICICADA
Everyone Is Everyone
Public Guilt
The cicada comes up often in discussion of electronic music. Theres
something unmistakably cicada-like in a particular realm of sonic
experimentation, when samples or just pure synthesis are revved up to a
hardy range of cycles, when the sounds reach a fever pitch. Despite
having adopted the insect as his namesake, Christopher White, aka
Magicicada, is generally more interested in a kind of homespun
methodology that rarely approaches the level of activity required to
simulate bugsound, except as a distant backdrop to the goings-on. No,
instead on Everyone Is Everyone we get gently rolling sweeps of domestic
tinkering, with everything from household goods to toys to guitar (and
snoring, maybe?) directed into generally gentle tapestries that are the
audio equivalent to scrapbooks. Oven door percussion? Check.
Resonating metal pieces? Check. An alternate title might have been
Everything Is an Instrument. Not everything is tranquil. For the
Father suggests some serious parental issues, with dark drones, vibrant
little noises and rattles that suggest bad memories. And Peach Is Pink
is initially so over-clocked it could give Kid 606 a run for his laptop,
though it quickly mellows into a raga of quotidian sound cues. Even when
the echo is set on heavy (Wellbelow) and the samples are looping
interminably (Cause), you can still smell good cooking from the
kitchen and feel shag carpet under your feet. MARC WEIDENBAUM

Foxy Digitalis

Magicicada is the very impressive debut from Atlanta based musician/sound designer/photographer Christopher White. "Everyone is Everyone" could have been titled "Everything is Everything" as it often seems White is trying to pack all his musical interests, all his experimentation, and every found sound into one recording as if it's the only chance he's going to get.
While all the tracks are undeniable solid and well executed there just seems to be too much of everything all at once. There are moments when the density of White's compositions work really well and create just the right mindset to sooth or unnerve... it doesn't matter which, either would have been just as fun. There is a string of songs "I Demand My Fucking Cloud", "Turi'", and "Peach is Pink" that channel Matthew Bower perfectly and ended up being my touchstone for the entire disc. They were no less busy than the others and White probably manipulated no less than 150 instruments/items to create each track but here they work. Unlike many other 'experimental' recordings, I didn't find my enjoyment so the artist could accomplish all he wanted to with the piece. There was a connection between the creator and listener that had been illusive until that point in the album. Had White not been able to forge that bond, the disc would have been a total mess. I think that, had the album been focused into two separate albums, one of electronics feedback distortion and drone, and the other field recordings entwined with the Amon DÃï¿1⁄2Ãï¿1⁄2l (either group) freakout/psych approach and expanded from there... heads would have been instantly melted. - Chris Jacques

Semtexinc.com
Magicicada: Everyone Is Everyone

Magicicada is one man and a load of instruments. Christopher White, mastermind behind Magicicada, sound designer and photographer (the first 500 copies of this compact disc come with a print of one of his photographs), is based in Atlanta and has delivered a 70 minutes trip of dark, creepy and ambient instrumental music. With the first listen of this album I was thrown back into time: I felt memories creeping up of strange music coming out of my speakers, music that was made by bands with weird names such as Nurse With Wound and The Anti Group. Thats what you get when record reviewers are getting older: theyre throwing names around that you, the young and hip music listener, have never heard of.
Everyone Is Everyone is an experimental album made by natural instruments and therefore sounds very organic. White used, and I quote, pump organ, voice, contact mics on faulty electrical lines, melodica, toys, iron balls rolling on wooden floors, accordion, cellophane, air cans, tape decks for the blind, guitar, shruti box, MARTA (Atlantas public transit), synths, oven door (percussion,) cellos, zurna, paper, frogs in the backyard, and the remains of Hurricane Denis shaking the roof. Im sure he didnt use all these instruments in all the songs of this album, because actually all pieces sound quite minimalist. And on top of that, on some tracks White was joined by some guest musicians such as Destructo Swarmbots or the singing of Trulee Grace Hall.
The song Secret History reminded me strongly of Coil in their Music To Play In The Dark period, and in fact this is exactly what it is: music to play in the dark, for intense listening. This is not a record that you will put on while doing the dishes or mopping the floor. I surely wouldnt recommend it. The central point of this album is the almost 17 minutes lasting I Demand My Fucking Cloud. There are so many things happening on this track, things that you will only discover after a few listens. None of the tracks here have a conventional song structure, although there are bits and pieces of what you might call free folk, but the atmosphere and the mood change so swiftly that there is simply no genre for this music. I said free folk, but there is also ambient, drones, industrial, noise and even a bit of singing in Wellbelow (the shortest and maybe also creepiest track on this album, these voices give me the shivers).
Is there nothing bad about this album? Yes there is, it is too long, and there is some disturbing eastern or Asian music on here that does not fit the picture (as in Peach Is Pink). And somehow, I sense a lack of unity in this record. It feels as different tracks were thrown together without much ado about the overall ambience of it. And that is the reason why I have never listened to the whole of this album.
Oh you were asking for contemporary names, thats right I hear some of the atmosphere of Stars Of The Lid, I hear the pulsing rhythms of Double Leopards, and I hear compositional structures as made before by Glenn Branca. But in the first place I hear Magicicada, a rather unique musical project, and Im not done with it completely. This asks for more listening, more discovering.

Aural Pressure

Magicicada is the alter-ego of Atlanta based musician/sound designer/photographer, Christopher White. "Everyone is Everyone" features the blending of diverse sound and instrumental sources into an effusive and colorful whole. Through nine tracks (clocking in at just over an hour) east Asian instruments, found sounds, traditional American and European folk instruments, as well as electronics and field recordings come together to tell tales of personal triumphs and frustrations. Mr. White performs regularly live and this shows in the tracks on this CD. The first five hundred copies of "Everyone is Everyone" come with "...custom photo(s) plus random suprises!". No idea what those "random surprises" might be. Given the quality of the CD package and the imaginative artwork, i'm sure there's something intriguing to be found packaged with those first five hundred disks.
The track 'Secret History' is as interesting structurally as it is sonically. Very refreshing to be taken for a ride like this. The "instrumentation" featured here is equally as fascinating.
'Cause' features guitar. I love the guitar. It is an instrument of tremendous depth capable of immeasurable subtlty as well as extream harshness. The instrument is put to extremly good use here by Bill Coonan. Generally speaking, Magicacada's magnificent use of loops throughout this collection gives the pieces a sense form without dumbing down the intricacy. Nice work.

Industrial.Org
There is a black and white image that came with my copy of this disc, a
picture of someone holding a slimy black thing in their hand next to a
spider's web, and while this dark image isn't really fitting for the music,
it still kickass ass. This is the first Magicicada disc I've heard, and it's
a pretty good introduction.
What you get here is a nice collection of drones and experimental sounds,
lots of found soundish stuff blending in with the sounds to create a very
interesting type of thick and textured ambience. Each track sounds
completely different from the one before it, yet there is an overall
cohesion and style to the record. At times it is pretty weird, even for
experimental, and I like it. It kind of reminds me of what I've heard from
Dronament, but with more stuff thrown into the mix. The only thing that bugs
me here is a few seconds where some Half Japaneseesque vocals come into the
mix, but it's a minor complaint and doesn't challenge the overall
experience. if you're looking for some good experimental drone music that
will give you both something to chill out to and something to think about,
give this disc a try. Recommended for sure.JPW

Crucial Blast:
Everyone Is Everyone
Public Guilt
Magicicada is one Christopher White, an Atlanta musician and artist who creates mystical sound collages and evocative, organic drones from a arsenal of folk instruments, found objects,samplers, and field recordings. The nine tracks on Everyone Is Everyone range from shimmering pastoral drones to dense and hypnotic electronic tides joined by tribal clatter, vocal experimentation, skittery free improv, tape loop hallucinations, and ghostly folksy strum. All sorts of instruments and objects are at play here...the buzzing of contact mics and faulty electrical lines,melodica and pump organ, toys and bells and synths, the sounds of wind and frogs and public transit systems. The field recordings, otherworldy sounds and drones, and cinematic terrain take this into a kind of Sun City GIrls meets Sunroof! territory. Quite dreamy and beautiful. Good stuff for fans of Sunroof, Ashtray Navigations, Birchville Cat Motel, Avarus, RIchard Youngs, Burning Star Core, and all manner of free drone improv bliss. The first 500 discs contain a print of cool/mysterious treated photography by Christopher White. Packaged in an Arigato Pak style sleeve gorgeously printed by Stumptown. Another winner from our buddy JR at Public Guilt, released in tandem with the BLAZING free-rock document from The Psychic Paramount!

Vital Weekly
http://www.staalplaat.com/)From a joint review with my labelmate Psychic Paramount.

Of a totally different nature is Magicicada, aka Christopher White and
also someone I never heard of. Apparently he is always recording and
performing on a wide array of sound devices pump organ, voice, contact
mics on faulty electric lines, melodica, toys, iron balls rolling
wooden floors etc (this being not even half the list) and has had a
couple of releases on CD and CDR. Every track on the CD is noted with
long lists of recording notes, and if you read them, they give the
impression of someone who is also frantically moving about. Not caring
about how or why, this is best described as 'outsider' music. It moves
along lines of improvised music, eastern and western folk music, lo-fi
singer songwriter stuff and minimalist patterns on the cello, but
never going to be anything close to being accessible: there is a
strong element of experimental music to it, but at the same time
things remain highly listenable. Again, great stuff. (FdW)
Address: http://www.publicguilt.com

JustAddNoise

Let me just start by saying that anyone who will dump a couple dozen copies of their own CDRs into a bin at the local Tower Records deserves to be heard. And both are true of Christopher White aka Magicicada. Seems like a good guerilla marketing plan to me, but I might suggest making up some stickers to put on them that say something like "FREE - for promotional purposes only. Not for resale_ especially by these corporate fuckers!? I'd love to see the look on the manager's face when he tried to stop me from walking out the door with that.
This newest release by White is an eerie, dark exploration in sound design. With an organic approach to creation, these eastern and folk influenced experimental works rival some of the strangest electronic ambient out there - from drifting soundscapes to meditative trances. The list of sound sources reads more like two separate lists. One of instruments. And one of random shit that makes noise. Pump organ, contact mics on faulty electrical lines, melodica, accordion, guitar, synths, cellos_ and iron balls rolling around on a wooden floor, air cans, public transit buses, oven doors, paper, cellophane, frogs_ You get the idea and you've all heard the found sound records that go out of their way to be obscure, but these tracks play more as the soundtrack to everyday life that the actual sound of everyday life.
Particular highlight tracks include: "Well Below?, which is a collage of soft typewriter-ish pecks and clicks, twinkling chimes, distant, chanting vocals, somber wails that sound vaguely like bagpipes, all over a slow, droning backdrop. Chaotic yet hypnotic. "I Demand My Fucking Cloud? has a slow freak folk guitar loop and fuzzed out waves of distortion that eventually evolve into quiet, staticy noise with constantly changing layers of sound from indistinguishable origins. That and the best track name I've heard in a while. And "Cause?, which you can go ahead and experience for yourself right now.

Radium Club

Magicicada - Everyone is Everyone (CD)
Public Guilt, 2006
Public Guilt's line of original and difficult to categorise releases continues, this time with a brand new album from Magicicada. The band consists of Christopher White alone, but on most of the songs that make up his latest effort Everyone is Everyone he is joined by a whole cadre of guest musicians.
As is typical for many Public Guilt artists, Magicicada's material too is quite experimental, with ambientish overtones accompanied by taped segments and occasional more traditional instruments. The result is an electroacoustic hodgepodge that is astonishingly varied and constantly changing. The sounds used to construct the tracks are pleasantly unique and Mr. White can definitely not be blamed for lack of creativity when it comes to choosing his sample material, since he has used the sounds of cellophane and the Atlanta public transit system among other things. Combined with occasional melodies these sounds create a very peculiar feeling, almost as if the listener were walking through an exotic city, hearing street musicians, random parts of conversations, traffic noise and radios tuned to different channels as he goes by.
For the most of its playing time Everyone is Everyone is a very enjoyable, high quality experience, but unfortunately a few odd things detract from the pleasure, like for example the completely random sounding zurna melody in Peach is Pink, or some abrupt changes in style in the middle of a track. Despite these admittedly quite insignificant complaints the album is a delightful piece of work and Magicicada itself a fine addition to the label's roster.