Friday July 19th marked the first day of this year's Music Frees All Festival with Cuddle Magic and EMEFE heading up late night sets at Rockwood Music Hall and a slew of performers earlier in the night at the Bowery Electric.

The Deli has a soft spot for Cuddle Magic. With all six members sporting identical circular sunglasses, the band played a dynamic set with haunting harmonies between lead singer Kristin Slip and bassist/guitarist Ben Davis. Cole Kamen-Green and Dave Flaherty moved together in harmony banging, trumpetingand squeezing out sounds from a plethora of different instruments that many have likened to a “quiet storm” of percussion and background instrumentation.

Watching Cuddle Magic perform is like seeing an organic synthesis of a high-fi recording. The band has impeccable volume and expression control over both their electric and acoustic instruments and each member juggles with a few different sounds during the course of their sets.

You can see Cuddle Magic on July 27 at Cameo Gallery. - Ed Guardaro

We added this song to The Deli's playlist of Best songs by emerging NYC artists - check it out!

After two solid years, Music Frees All will return to NYC for it’s third time with some great and diverse sounding locals, including Deli favorites EMEFE (pictured and streaming), Cuddle Magic and Xenia Rubinos amongst the 21 artists performing. This year's festival will span 3 days and 4 venues - including The Bell House, Bowery Electric and Rockwood Music Hall - kicking off on Friday July 19 until the following Sunday. The festival’s proceeds will go in part to the Scotty Hard Trust, which raises funds for legendary producer Scott Harding. Festival founder Miles Arntzen of Antibalas – also performing - says Scotty, “is the center of an important and warm community of musicians that we are happy to know and work with. This concert is our chance to say thank you!” - Ed Guardaro

Philly/Brooklyn chamber-pop outfit Cuddle Magic's latest session with Daytrotter is up. You can take a listen to and download it for free HERE (with a membership). (Illustration by Johnnie Cluney)

Cuddle Magic may have a weird name, but it somehow makes sense. Their music inspires hugs (sophisticated ones though) and is achieved through instrumental wizardry involving a large list of unusual instruments. They played our CMJ show last October at The Living Room and charmed us inside out. That's why we interviewed them here. 

In order to properly describe what the Philly-Brooklyn hybrid Cuddle Magic does, it may be best to provide a roll-call of the elements at their disposal and the manner or technique in which each of these elements is emphasized in creating a complex system of sound. The reality is that the band, who is performing at the Tine Angel tonight, produces music, which makes use of a plethora of instruments like woodwinds, horns, strings etc. They use female and male vocals that bounce off each other and interlock in rich natural harmony marrying in a way that makes one wonder how they were ever apart; all the while spinning Byzantine literature lyrics. Cuddle Magic is part theatrical, part dramatic, part playful, but in the end, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts - an assembly line of musicality. Tin Angel, 20 S. 2nd St., 10:30pm, $10, 21+ - Michael Colavita