Wicca Phase Springs Eternal has been the moniker and creative persona of Pennsylvania-based singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Adam McIlwee for over a decade. The name is as enigmatic as McIlwee's work, a fittingly esoteric umbrella for his ever-growing and ever-evolving catalog of music that's been released at a stunning quality and pace. So it's with great intention that the name is now also the title of McIlwee's latest full-length: Wicca Phase Springs Eternal offers the musician's most finely honed and welcoming songs to date, but it's more than just a self-titled album-it's a portal, an entryway into an entire world. As 2019 merged into 2020, the former Tigers Jaw member and Gothboiclique founder was looking to step away from the hyper-concentrated melancholic Trap of 2019's Suffer On, and set out to breathe fresh life into the WPSE project by creating a broader sonic landscape. Inspired by the musings of '60s and '70s British folk bands such as Fairport Convention and Pentangle, McIlwee hunkered down in the Western Catskills and Abington Township in Pennsylvania, absorbing the scenery and trying to translate the beauty of his surroundings into an immersive experience. He began to expand the WPSE lore and fashion a more colorful and descriptive body of work-one where he still wears his heart on his sleeve, but now all of the longing and heartache exist in a vivid space that's strikingly real and otherworldly all at once. The sound of Wicca Phase began to grow as well: never wanting the project to be defined by a genre, McIlwee worked closely with longtime collaborator Darcy Baylis, as well as newcomer Ben Greenberg, to continue to bring new styles and moods into WPSE. Looking to incorporate his love of EDM, trance, and house sounds, McIlwee and co. Created an amalgam of '80s and '90s breakbeat style drums, modernistic 808s, shimmering synths, and washes of reverberating guitar and organic bass. McIlwee's devotion to traversing the unknown-both emotional and extra-dimensional-is palpable and contagious. When he sings "I spent hours trying to tap into the mystery" on the eponymous opening track, you believe him, and are also reminded of what a rare joy it is to be fully captivated by a piece of art that's this richly detailed, while still leaving so many questions unanswered, so many twists left to be discovered with every listen. When Wicca Phase Springs Eternal ends, you find yourself compelled to play it again-to enter the portal and once more find out where it leads.
