Lo-Fi Psychedelia Shines as Michael Robert Murphy Launches Debut Album "Chaos Magick"
- Desh Kapur
- Jun 25
- 2 min read
Future Yard, Birkenhead – Friday, 20th June 2025
IMAGES / WORDS DESH KAPUR
Tucked just across the Mersey from Liverpool, Future Yard in Birkenhead has fast become one of the North West’s most exciting grassroots venues — an incubator for boundary-pushing music and a welcoming space for both up-and-comers and established voices seeking intimate communion with their audience. On Friday night, it played host to one of Liverpool’s most respected songwriters as Michael Robert Murphy unveiled Chaos Magick, his debut solo album, to a packed and expectant crowd.
Formerly the frontman of The Wicked Whispers, Murphy stepped into his solo spotlight with poise and a quiet intensity. Chaos Magick, out now via AV8 Records / Blaggers Records, is a collection steeped in folk-tinged, lo-fi psychedelia — a woozy, melancholic trip that feels both intimate and mythic. Though the album features contributions from indie heavyweights like Echo and the Bunnymen’s Will Sergeant and The Coral’s Ian Skelly, Paul Molloy, and Ian McCulloch, none of them were in attendance on the night. It mattered little. Murphy and his band more than rose to the occasion.
Opening with a subtle shimmer, the set quickly bloomed into a richly textured live experience. Songs that feel introspective and dreamlike on record took on new dimension when brought to life on stage. The live arrangements were warm, organic, and deeply felt — bolstered by a tight full band and the welcome addition of a guest vocalist who added soulful harmony and presence during key moments in the set.
Murphy’s voice — wistful, seasoned, and unmistakably his own — guided the audience through songs that felt timeless. The songwriting was, simply put, sublime: poetic without pretence, mystical without abstraction. There were echoes of Love, The Byrds, and early solo Lennon, but this was unmistakably a Michael Robert Murphy statement — equal parts Merseyside grit and cosmic longing. The pacing of the set was masterful, with delicate folk interludes giving way to psych-tinged swells that felt cathartic and otherworldly.
If Chaos Magick is an album of internal alchemy, then this launch show was its full-bodied conjuring. Murphy — a craftsman of melody and atmosphere — has carved out a space uniquely his own, and Future Yard proved the perfect crucible for his vision. A special night from a songwriter whose star only continues to rise.
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