Saturday, October 19, 2013

REVIEW: Mirror Travel - Mexico


Mirror Travel is an Austin-based guitar rock trio: Tiffanie Lanmon (drums), Paul Brinkley (bass/vocals) and Lauren Green (guitar/vocals). They're playing a warm, intriguing style of music - it seems to inhabit the place where classic indie guitar rock and dream pop might intersect.

They've got the total package. To start with the foundation, Lanmon's a great drummer, able to vary tempos with impressive agility. This sets the stage for Brinkley and Green's vocals, bass and guitars to play in all kinds of settings and speeds. The dominant theme is tension/release on the guitars with dreamlike, reverb-laden vocals. Breeders and Pixies comparisons wouldn't be out of place, nor would comparisons to more "shoegaze"-leaning guitar rock acts like Swervedriver and Galaxie 500. And the reverb adds an element of surf-rock to some of the songs.

Check out the advance track, "Mexico":



And "I Want You To Know" - a much faster pace on this one, with kind of an uptempo motorik beat:



Like most very good bands, they've come together through a variety of experiences (band name changes, label problems, touring with name-brand artists like Trail of Dead and Bill Callahan) to make a sound that is intriguingly their own.

Check out the slowed-down, heavy guitar/bass dominated "Stoner" at Soundcloud. It gets almost heavy-metal in places. Here's a live video - you may want to adjust the bass on your EQ:



This is a great driving record - likely in part due to its recording in the West Texas wastelands, where the horizon can go on forever... Mexico is out October 15th, 2013 on Modern Outsider Records. It's highly recommended.

Mirror Travel website
Modern Outsider Records
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