This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
CMU Playlists
Playlist: Mirrors
By CMU Editorial | Published on Friday 29 July 2011
Mirrors claim to take inspiration from a wide range of people, from American physicist Richard Feynman to footballer Lionel Messi. This results in ambient synth-filled pop, which has drawn comparisons to the likes of Depeche Mode, OMD and Tears For Fears.
The band create their music using, amongst other equipment, a large collection of vintage synths, lending a warmth and unpredictability to the songs. Says frontman James New: “We like that whole idea that your art is your life, you are what you make. We love old synths – they only play one note at a time. They go out of tune. They’re a nightmare to program. But that’s why we like them. We don’t want everything completely polished and produced”.
Having confronted their instruments head on, the band released their debut album, ‘Lights And Offerings’, through Skint in February, along with the excellent single, ‘Into The Heart’. More recently, they released the double A-side ‘Look At Me/Perfectly Still’, and created an official remix of Lady Gaga’s ‘Judas’.
Always well turned out, the band this week launched their own line of ties with Brighton-based tailor Gresham Blake. And this weekend they are due to perform at designer Wayne Hemmingway’s equally style conscious Vintage Festival.
Ahead of that, James New put together a Powers Of Ten playlist for us, and and synth man James Arguile popped in to add a track, too.
MIRRORS’ TEN
Click here to listen to James and James’ playlist in Spotify, and then read on to find out more about their selections.
01 The Horrors – Still Life
James New: For me they are one of the few British bands who consistently deliver exciting songs. They have a knack of mixing genres and sounds that really shouldn’t work together, putting them together and making something magnificent. They can sound huge, dense and exhilarating when turned up nice and loud.
02 Charles Mingus – Track A-Solo Dancer
James Arguile: The surging, lurching intro to this piece of music makes me feel sea sick, in a good way. The music swells and seethes, restless, warped. It feels like the sound of a black mood, an uncomfortable, oppressive mental state. When the drums kick in proper, the sax comes out like the sun with the most sublime line, and the music flops into a bizarre space between the languorous and the tensely fraught. It’s a mind-bender.
03 Ryuichi Sakamoto – Riot In Lagos
JN: What you have to remember when you hear this track is just exactly how old it is (31 years old, to be precise). It anticipated the sound of electro in one move. Its stylish swagger is mischievously infectious and you cannot help but imagine yourself walking the busy streets of Tokyo when under its spell. Its sound also had a direct and obvious impact on the developing hip hop scene, with Afrika Bambaata and Kurtis Mantronik both citing it as a major influence. It is, simply, timeless.
04 Prince – Sign O The Times
JN: It would be wrong and unfair to make a top ten mixtape without including Prince. The man can put anyone and everyone in their place in one fell swoop. This is just about as funky as he gets.
05 Neu! – Hallogallo
JN: A perfect track with which to awake from a deep sleep and begin the day. It’s long, so you should have time to make a brew, check the news and get your clothes on before it finishes. The perfect relentless groove.
06 The Velvet Underground – I’m Waiting For The Man
JN: It might just be that my girlfriend has woken me up to this song for the last three years but it never leaves my brain. I’m always singing the bloody thing.
07 Television – Carried Away
JN: If I were going to make a film, this song would start it.
08 Gang Of Four – Natural’s Not In It
JN: Angry, aggressive, yet streamlined and full of utter purpose. They don’t make bands like this any more.
09 The Slits – Newtown
JN: Ari Up was just fifteen when she sang these vocals. And what a great rhythm, too. Oh, the production… everything about this is just right, but as if it just happened to happen that way.
10 Teardrop Explodes – Ha Ha I’m Drowning
JN: I love the exuberant brass in this. How Julian Cope managed to make this band sound so good is beyond me. I feel as if they could very easily have been awful. But they’re not. They’re great, and Cope is a legend.
