With that in mind, The Mirror Trap’s ferocious sound might come as a surprise upon first listen. Blending the energy of post-hardcore with deep, ominous drums The Twilight Sad would be proud of, Moore and Co. create weighty, atmospheric anthems inspired by the contemporary world. Financial inequality, technological identity (or the lack thereof), information overload and narcosis… The Mirror Trap are concerned with all of the things which make today’s society such a strange, confusing place. Lead single ‘Piranhas’ feels like the consequence of these pressures, a furious, frustrated scream which could be read as an act of rebellion, a burning of bridges or a desperate cry for help.

We’re up to our eyeballs, in half a million problems

Piranhas come calling and tear the flesh right off us.

I woke up this morning, with three bears in my porridge,

with no good news in paper, no let up in the weather.

I live for the weekend, a bowl to put my keys in,

I hide my desires, so you wont kick me out the gang.

As part of our Quiet, Constant Friends project, we’ve been asking people to make playlists based around a book of their choice, and thought The Mirror Trap might be just the folks to continue the Lit Links series. Lead Gary Moore stepped up the the plate with a collection of tracks inspired by a work by Orwell, which seems pretty suitable considering the themes they’re concerned with. Grab your headphones and have a read below!

George Orwell’s Keep The Aspidistra Flying
by Gary Moore

For some unknown reason I avoided George Orwell for years. I think the romantic in me insisted I only read exotic novels by wayward Frenchmen or stoic Russians. Reading the work of a British man whose real name was Eric seemed unthinkable. But a brief fascination with the Spanish Civil War led me to read Homage to Catalonia and the flood gates opened, I swiftly set about reading every word Orwell had ever written.

Keep The Aspidistra Flying is perhaps my favourite Orwell novel. Set in 1930’s London this is the story of a writer rejecting the constraints of money and the “evils” of consumer capitalism, giving up his humdrum day job in advertising to peruse his artistic passions. This appealed to me as booth a burgeoning creative and as a giant lefty. Gordon Comstock, the central character of the novel, is a man with a commendable plan and outlook but is shown throughout to be flawed and shambolic, he is not a hero or a villain, and he is just unreservedly human. He drinks too much, and smokes too much, he is neurotic and distracted.

Keep The Aspidistra Flying is raw, cynical and often bleak but is ultimately a brilliant book, in both the story it tells and the somewhat prophetic points it makes. I tend to feel a little bit dirty reading it, but in a way I rather enjoy

Tracklisting:

1) Work, Work, Work (Pub, Club Sleep) – The Rakes
2) This Charming Man – The Smith
3) Atmosphere – Joy Division
4) Cigarettes & Alcohol – Oasis
5) Shot By Both Sides – Magazine
6) ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit’sworldwouldfallapart – Manic Street Preachers
7) Is This It – The Strokes
8) Common People – Pulp
9) I Love a Man in Uniform – Gang of Four
10) Lost in the Supermarket – The Clash
11) Bitter Sweet Symphony – The Verve
12) Fake Plastic Trees – Radiohead
13) For Tomorrow – Blur
14) Rat Race – The Specials
15 What a Waster – The Libertines

Simulations will be released on the 8th July via Riverman. The band have a few festival dates lined up before an European tour this autumn with Placebo (marked with *):

Jul 09: T In The Park, Stirling, United Kingdom
Jul 31: Y Not Festival 2016, Derby, United Kingdom
Aug 19: Astro Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Aug 21: Summer Sonic Festival, Tokyo, Japan
Oct 13: Train, Aarhus, Denmark*
Oct 14: Vega Main Hall, Copenhagen, Denmark*
Oct 16: Sentrum Scene, Oslo, Norway*
Oct 18: Cirkus, Stockholm, Sweden*
Oct 20: Hartwall Arena, Helsinki, Finland*
Oct 22: Riga Arena, Riga, Latvia*
Oct 24: St Petersburg Arena, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation*
Oct 26: Moscow Olimpiyskiy, Moscow, Russian Federation*
Oct 29: Torwar, Warsaw, Poland*
Oct 31: Barclaycard Arena, Hamburg, Germany*
Nov 02: Laxness, Cologne, Germany*

P.S. Be sure to tune in next week, where we’ll be presenting a playlist from Gary’s cat based around Exile and the Kingdom by Camus.

P.P.S. Not really.

The post Lit Links: The Mirror Trap appeared first on Various Small Flames.

If latest album More Than Any Other Day is anything to go by, Montréal’s Ought do not follow these rules. The band, shaped by the Printemps d’Erable Quebec student general strike (and following months of protest against neo-liberal austerity measures), are definitely not ignorant. However, their music possesses an exuberant earnesty which is maybe at odds with their roots.

And it is this that makes Ought stand out as a band – it would be all too easy for a group interested in/affected by political issues to become an angry protest outfit, but instead they channel things into a much more positve energy. ‘Today, More Than Any Other Day’ opens slowly but builds up into a jubilant celebration of life. I’ll quote at length so you get the idea:

‘Well today, more than any other day, I am excited for the milk of human kindness.
And today, more than any other day, I am excited to go grocery shoppping.
And today, more than any other day I am prepared to make a decision between 2% and whole milk.
And today, more than any other day, I look into the eyes of the old man across from me on the train and say “Hey! Everything is going to be okay!”’

‘The Weather Song’ (listen below) is similarly buoyant: a messy slice of rock ‘n roll with a chorus that would make it a summer radio-hit in any just society. Other songs are more experimental in sound and across the album the band explore different styles, never dwelling on any one too long. Attempts to nail down clear comparisons are difficult. Sure, you could cite Pavement, Sonic Youth, Cap’n Jazz, Gang of Four, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, etc. etc., but as soon as you pin down an influence for one part of the album, it moves in a different direction, leaving you chasing after it, breathless and delighted.

More Than Any Other Day is to be released by Constellation Records on 29th April, and you can pre-order it here.

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