The spread of musical genres across cultures and borders is certainly an
interesting phenomena. The movement of post-rock to Europe has been a fairly
slow process. No European bands really attempted it until Mogwai popped up
around 1996. The music then eventually leaked into Germany with tectonic
bands like The Notwist and Kreidler and then Italy, which leads us to this
release, the 1998 self-titled debut by Giardini di Mirò which has been out
of print for a while and was recently re-released on the German label Fiction
Friction.
Remarkably though, over all that distance and time and with the differences in
culture, Giardini di Mirò puts little spin on the tried and true, not
varying very much from the original acts they draw from.
Like many of those other European bands I've mentioned, Giardini di Mirò
seems to have caught on more to the front end of the movement instead of the
tail end, drawing more influence from Slint than Tortoise. To further simplify
things, Giardini di Mirò is still very much a guitar rock band. Their
songs are dark and powerful, sounding as if made by someone on the brink of
losing control but too reserved to make that fact obvious.
Like almost every other young post-rock band, Giardini di Mirò has removed
all vocals from the music, however, remarkably that does not seem to get in the
way of the emotion of their pieces on this release. The guitar takes over the
lead and does not let go. If this music puts me in any specific location, it
is the vacant caverns of a major metropolis after dark, once teeming with life
but now lonely, leaving time and space for disillusioned introspection.
If this record has fault, it is that it does not grab the listener, instead
just existing on a subconscious level, influencing your thoughts but not serving
as a lead in the voyage. Focused attention does reveal a lot going on though
with many interesting sounds and patterns. On par with their American
re-release on Zum Records (also self-titled), although a bit darker and with
less interesting song titles ("Tom (ahawk) Cruise"), this 31 minute EP is worth
spending some alone time with.
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