Ghais Guevara, Anjimile, and more feature on McKinley Dixon's new album, Magic, Alive!

"'Sugar Water' is a discussion on how to make fleeting moments last forever, and how to carry those not here with you through time and space. It raises the question 'what’s the price to pay for an eternal life lived through others memories?’" McKinley Dixon says of the new single.

Magic, Alive! began life when Dixon received an unexpected email from English producer Sam Yamaha. Dixon rendezvoused with him in London, digging through his archive to find a wealth of beats that resonated with his own approach and with the burgeoning concept for Magic, Alive!. Last July, Dixon returned to his native Richmond, Virginia, with a tranche of sounds from Sam Yamaha and Koff, with whom he’d worked before. “It’s like a celebration when I make a record back in Richmond,” he says. “Everybody has grown, but now here we are together again.”

The forthcoming release is set to follow on from 2021’s For My Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Her and 2023’s Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? – both instrumentally rich exercises in storytelling wrapped up in the trauma and grief of losing a young friend.

Magic, Alive! continues the work of its predecessors: It is the story of three kids who lose their best friend and wrestle with the subsequent turmoil. The essential twist, though, is that the trio wonder what they can do to bring their pal back or, at the very least, reconvene with him, so that their friendship does not end with mortality

Tracklist:

1. Watch My Hands
2. Sugar Water (feat. Quelle Chris & Anjimile
3. A Crooked Stick (feat. Ghais Guevara & Alfred.)
4. Recitatif (feat. Teller Bank$)
5. Run, Run, Run Part II
6. We're Outside, Rejoice!
7. All The Loved Ones (What Would We Do???) [feat. ICECOLDBISHOP & Pink Siifu]
8. F.F.O.L. (feat. Teller Bank$)
9. Listen Gentle
10. Magic, Alive!
11. Could've Been Different (feat. Blu & Shamir)