A deeply unusual album, Jeff Phelps’ Magnetic Eyes is an intriguing blend of soul-jazz, nocturnal electro-funk, and oddball experimentation. Phelps, a nuclear engineer working near Houston, cut the album in his modest bedroom studio, using just a primitive drum machine, a few synths, and a Tascam Portastudio. Despite his equipment's limitations, Phelps created remarkably lush, sometimes-ominous soundscapes that sounded like little else in the world of mid-‘80s soul and R&B. Every now and again, one gets a glimpse of Phelps’ influences; the jazzy “On the Corner," for instance, recalls the mournful social realism of Gil Scott-Heron. But for the most part, Phelps and his defiantly uncategorizable compositions are in a class all their own. Phelps released the album privately in 1985 in a small run of a few thousand copies. It's since become a cult item, with original copies trading hands for untoward sums among fanatical collectors and contemporary tastemakers like Nite Jewel's Ramona Gonzalez citing Magnetic Eyes as a forgotten electro masterpiece.