Spellling & the Mystery School by Spellling

I don’t remember what year it was.

I don’t remember who she was opening for.

But I remember the night I first saw Spellling live. Do I remember what she sang? No. Do I even really remember what it sounded like? No. All I remember is what I felt — light; like I had been lifted to another part of space. In reality, I was upstairs at Starline Social Club, but I felt like I had slipped into a trance.

Spellling’s newest record, Spellling & the Mystery School, will still take you places, but it will probably be somewhere a little heavier. What sets this one apart from previous work is that this seems a noisier, fuller affair – which makes sense, as she’s backed by a full band on this one. But it’s still the same old Spellling Oakland knows and loves.

Spellling & the Mystery School is made up of reinvigorated versions of old tracks, stretching back to Pantheon of Me, the full-length that put her on the local map. Everything’s just got a little more oomph this time around: “Haunted Water” from 2019’s Mazy Fly, beats a little faster, while “Under the Sun” sounds almost totally different, trading the original synths for live instruments in some spots. “Boys at School,” now packed tightly with more instrumental layers, becomes even bigger than before.

If you want to feel the way I felt that night at Starline, you can catch Spellling live with Sasami, Fat Tony, Laraaji, Sun Ra Arkestra (!!), and more at Children’s Fairyland for Atlas Obscura’s “Through the Looking Glass” on Saturday, September 16.

Listen on Bandcamp →