RIP Magic and James Murphy team up on fabled ‘5Words’
For the past year, the story of RIP Magic has been the ticket into the elite smoking circles in London‘s underground music scene.
It goes a little something like this: In the summer of 2023, Tyler, the Creator overheard a DJ Set by Marco Pini and Felix Bayley-Higgins, and sauntered over to the pair, coolly asking to hear their demos.
From here, the alternative electronic-rock band has been rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous, no more impressive than their opening slot for LCD Soundsystem at the end of 2025 in New York, despite only a handful of releases to their name.
We learn a lot from these few releases: Abrasive textures, dripping, malevolent vocals, astringent synths. But it’s on their new release, ‘5Words’, a staple of their live shows, that the band has truly come alive.
We might not be surprised: After all, the iconic James Murphy would surely be able to extract the best of a group primed for radio success. But, this doesn’t mean we can’t be impressed. To say the least, ‘5Words’ is impressive.
We open with lyricist and frontman Pini warbling on about Manchester City, some hazy details swirling about a trenchant undertone. The song is cut with a consistent bass line, which exposes gratuitous moments of space to feel even grander than the Murphy label affords.
The build-up is worth the wait. The second half of the song explodes into a slurry of new-wave textures and rhythmic lines dancing around each other like the hot and heavy portion of a Tantric pleasure evening.
It’s reminiscent of LCD Soundsystem’s darker tunes, sure, but it also has a scuttling, shifting sense of secrecy, its own mythic power. This is Murphy’s first production for another band in over a decade, and he certainly fires on all cylinders.
Pini’s snotty vocals all but disappear, his already unintelligible words now barely distinguishable above the all-encompassing sonic thwack. It’s not a great loss for the listener, who is invited to immerse themselves fully in the euphoric grind of the alternative-electronic feast.
There’s a reason RIP Magic stand proudly in Far Out’s 2026 Ones to Watch list. With Murphy’s backing, RIP Magic are poised to head straight to the top.
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