Labels: Daggerman Records
Review by: Andy Malcolm
I picked this up a while ago, gave it a few spins, neglected it. Which was dumb. The opening track “Mirror Panics” sets the scene for a damn solid twelve. It is some tightly wound post punk grit, brewing up a storm with monotone vocals and shouted backups. It slots in very nicely into a pre-conceived notion I have of where bands all line up in a row, from one style to another. In this stupid vision, I am seeing Imaginary Icons standing kind of haphazardly, and on one side are Wire and Mission of Burma, and on the other side are Eddie Current Suppression Ring. Isn’t my system useful! It means you can put bands in neat boxes! And it causes music to be utterly devoid of soul, as I force bands to occupy a very specific niche in the spectrum of music. Anyway, it helps me do reviews, and this is a very good record, it buzzes away with menacing gloom, some nice synth fizzing intercedes here and there to add some bonus white noise to the moderate distortion. And there’s some sax sometimes, but not much. Anyway, I am getting away from the point. This is some good quality, angular post punk, it doesn’t linger around, gets to the point, kicks you in the shins, and runs off again, flicking the V. I particularly enjoy the groove and the Mission of Burma flavour of the vocals. Worth checking out I reckon!