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Tracklist |
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01 - Pass the town, and to the C
02 - o&l
03 - rain falls
04 - i go
05 - in radiobroadcast junction
06 - respiration tone
07 - in(S)tro
08 - sidewalk to the next
09 - savanna
10 - mori |
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Review |
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Mirror are the New Order to Journal Spy Effort's Joy Division, thankfully without the suicide (or the god-awful Mancunian weather). After four years of line-up changes, committed gigging and just the one E.P, On, Then, In is the band's first full-length release. The accompanying press release has the band down as exponents of "math-rock", while their MySpace page labels them as "indie", "rock" and "emo". Neither description does the band any favours. "Indie" and "rock" aren't too bad, but they're too vague - hell, some people probably think that Coldplay are "indie rock". Secondly, maths does not rock, no matter how you look at it - after all, Sebadoh wanted you to give them indie rock, not math-rock. Any label of that ilk ("post-rock", "jazz-rock" etc) instantly conjures up images of the same goatee-sporting, chin-stroking douche bags that I mentioned in the Anchorsong review. Finally, ‘emo' is only one letter away from being ‘Elmo' and is infinitely more irritating - it's hard to see why any band would want to be part of a genre that has My Chemical Romance as its figurehead . So where does all of this leave Mirror?
Sometimes they are reminiscent of Miaou in the way that they piece together intricate, largely instrumental songs - "In Radiobroadcast Junction" is the only track with vocals here. At other times (especially on the album opener "Pass the town, and to the C") they are more like an instrumental version of nhhmbase. The two bands have similarly tight rhythm sections and a penchant for unexpected jazz-like time changes. Ultimately though, Mirror are Mirror and this is a good thing.
On, Then, In is a very promising debut. There's a slight dip about two-thirds of the way through when the band roll out consecutive sub-two-minute tracks ("Respiration Tone" and "In(S)Tro") - the songs aren't terrible, they're just anonymous. They come and go like the lonely party guest who sits alone in the corner talking to no-one, before departing unnoticed and unmissed. It's a minor quibble though as the rest of the album is full of songs that will worm their way into your consciousness (you may be surprised like I was to find yourself humming a song as complex as "o&l" hours after last listening to the album).
Although they are hardly ploughing a lonely furrow, there's enough about Mirror and On, Then, In to make them stand out among the many other instrumental rock bands. They are playing at the Apple Store in Shibuya next month (the 23rd if you're about) and this seems an apt venue for a band with such clean lines as this. Just don't tell me they're fucking "math-rock". |
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