Mirrored Lips have appeared on my Facebook page a few times before taking up this Spotlight article. “How come” I hear you ask? Well, they’ve played Newcastle at Trillian’s with one of my personal favourites, North East based Noise punk duo The Noise and the Naive and shared stages with Fret!, another of our heroes of noise. The latter actually share a cassette based record label…

The band in question however, are a three piece Russian no-wave punk trio comprising of Lusya, Ksusha and Sasha. To me they draw inspiration from all over the musical spectrum; there’s riffs worthy of White Stripes, while the dense and heavy distortion is very reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine and some of the rhythms recall The Slits.
The band also leans heavily on improvisation with a lot of the tracks featuring a looseness that you would normally find in a free jazz improvisation class, the band exploit this by making their music take turns that wouldn’t be common for a punk trio to make.
There is a sense that the band is picking the most interesting elements from other records and making them collide into one unique package.

One of my favourite aspects of the band however is the DIY approach they’ve seemingly brought to their music.
It’s very lofi and grungy in places while also very honest in the way that it is presented.
This ticks all the boxes for me, a; this is our music and if you don’t like it, it doesn’t make a difference to us we’re gonna play it away. No Compromises approach.

Key Tracks:

I’ve picked out a few key tracks as a starting point for those who might feel intimated by jumping head first into the band.

1.      “ленин" is a raucous riff fest, inspiring me to find a low ceiling gig to bounce along to this in. It’s got a rather “out there” high pitched refrain played over the noisier bits, almost working instead of a guitar solo, they just add that extra layer.
And for the grand finale, the band go into double time overdrive and it’s just beautiful.

2.      "No Love But Kill” wouldn’t sound out of place on a Minor Threat record, it’s 35 Seconds run time is a delightfully angry outburst of pure energy.
The angular interplay between the two vocal tracks is delightful.

3.      “ecoutez la chanson bien douce” is the final track I want to bring up. It’s got a glorious dense riff and a sing along chorus creating a bouncy forward momentum that makes me want to dance.

Mirrored Lips are an amazing band, doing this their own thing and love them for that.
Next time they are in the North East, you’ll have an extra fan in the audience! Single Review: Pet Virus' 'Can I Speak To Dirt' Jul 24 Single Review: Kahuna's 'Throw' Jul 18 Gig Review: Swine Tax's Release Show at Think Tank (14/07/2018)
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