In this dystopian dream punk nightmare universe, no one can hear you scream – UNLESS somebody’s listening. I’m listening to Midnight Mines – their instrumental screaming with instruments (not voices) from the inside of their bodies and minds reverberates through “We Are the Primitives of a New Era,” and trust me, it is heard. I am new to the London duo, composed of Baron Saturday and Private Sorrow, and guys, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Handshakes all around, virtual high fives, and cetera. What’s great about “We Are the Primitives” is that it’s giving me nothing to pin these guys down with – each track is a gnarled excursion into the dark recesses of one style or another, all making strange and wonderful sense when butting up against their tracklist neighbors. There’s the proto-industrial “Do the Locomotion,” the noir rock of “Up on the Roof with Scabs and Pigs,” the shimmering respite of “It Started All Over Again,” and the cutup clusterfuck of the entirety of side B’s “Static Symphony,” a collage of sounds strung together for fifteen minutes by the strands of nightmares. All of it is awesome, and I don’t want the exploration to end. It does end, after the shortest thirty minutes of your life, and then your only recourse is to press play again (or buy another one of their tapes – really, you’ve got a couple recourses). Even on repeat listens, the exploration continues, and maybe now the exploration is by Midnight Mines, and it’s of my own brain! See where the tunnels lead as they drill deep into it. With all this grubby London nightlife imagery coming to the fore as I’m listening, it ain’t gonna be somewhere pretty, I can guarantee you that. But that’s the point – that’s what makes it a mesmerizing listen.
Midnight Mines
Loki
--Ryan Masteller
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