First Glances – Mirrors.
Retro-futurists, Mirrors , dress like Kraftwerk , make videos like Kraftwerk and their music sounds a bit……yep, like Kraftwerk. Their taste, at least, is impeccable. The Brighton-based four-piece may take their musical and fashion cues from the past but if you’re going to mine any era the late seventies/early eighties will always remain the vintage period for synthpop. (Witness LCD Soundsystem )
There can be no argument over influences. OMD , Cabaret Voltaire , New Order and Heaven 17 are bound to crop up regularly in respect to Mirrors music but their fashion ideology brings the fledgling Interpol to mind. I think it was Carlos Dengler who once said something to the effect that he held a deep mistrust of anybody who didn’t dress sharply. James from Mirrors is marginally less snobbish about it:
‘We had people saying things like, “We don’t like the suits.” I think they must have thought we were being ironic. Well we’re not putting on a hoodie and waving a glowstick. This thing, it is more than the suits; it’s a lifestyle choice. It’s important to us and if people don’t get it they don’t get Mirrors!’
James goes on to add:
‘Suits add a certain discipline. And it gives us an identity after ten years of jeans and scruffy hair. When we walk together down the street we look like a group. It’s a ‘50s banker kind of vibe. And, although Kraftwerk famously did the same thing, they actually took the idea from Gilbert And George… the whole idea that your art is your life. We love that idea – that you are what you make. So we don’t look like modern city bankers going to work – traditionally-fitted suits, eyeliner and slicked-back hair are all equally important to the whole aesthetic.’
With only a handful of singles to their name it is too soon to tell whether Mirrors attention to aesthetic detail can be replicated in their music. The band may be looking backwards to move forwards but I wouldn’t bet against them. As Kraftwerk once put it:
“Even the greatest stars
discover themselves in the looking glass”
~Mirrors are on tour with OMD from November 11th. Long player ’Lights And Offerings’ should materialise later in the year.~