Scratchy Buckles: Mimas

I recently had the pleasure; along with Morris Chancer; of catching Mimas live at the Talking Heads in Southampton, as part of a short national tour of England. They have now returned to their home base in Århus, Denmark leaving behind a trail of very satisfied gig goers who feasted on their particular brand of atmospheric celebratory post rock.

The band are made up of four Danes Gert Hoberg Jørgensen (bass, vocals), Daniel Malling Beck (guitar, vocals) Lasse Dahl Christensen (drums, vocals) and an Icelander Snævar Njáll Albertsson (vocals, guitar, trumpet). They describe their music as 'Death-indie' but I would describe it as ‘big music’ that make you tingle.

They produced an E.P ‘Hands Will Carry’ which came out in 2005 to their credit. This gained them a slot at the famous Roskilde Festival in Denmark and a first tour of England brought them to the attention of Worst Case Scenario Records who released a split single with The Follow in 2006 ‘Thought Discuss’ gained favourable reviews and widened their fan base beyond their following back in native Denmark. Mimas now release a debut album ‘The Worries’ on 4th October 2008 through Big Scary Monsters Records and have come back in England on a short promotional tour.

We arrived fashionably late and so apologies go out to the support band on the bill, we only caught the tail end of the performance of Komiss. This was due to another special event taking place on the same night i.e. England playing well for the first time in an eon vs Croatia, We had to catch the full ninety minutes of exhilarating football as it’s a rare event for the national team to produce a performance that lively. I shall endeavor to catch up with Komiss in the near future but it sounded the bees-knees from the two songs that we managed to hear. I understand that the support listed Prego weren’t able to make it but again further investigation will carried out in due course.

As Mimas took to the stage a smattering of people drifted in to give the audience numbers an air of respectability, but really it was a shame that more folks couldn't make the effort to appreciate a quality outfit. The lead singer pronounced an introduction, that the band as a whole was tired and missing wives and family. I hoped something was being lost in translation, as my fears grew of a performance, that was going to rush through a minimum number of tunes in a disinterest manner, in order to fulfill a contractual obligation.

However, as soon as they launched into the opening track my doubts evaporated as Mimas became totally focused on music and proceeded to deliver a performance of intensity and majesty with soaring trumpets, tight harmonies and wall of exquisite noise. It’s indicative of a band that’s going in the right direction that they could switch straight into the zone, appearing fully concentrated on producing an energetic sound that fed off each member of the group. The yelping vocals, with English lyrics, intertwined with languid moments of maudlin trumpet solos on 'Dads' and 'Mac Get Your Car' is a sonic maelstrom. At times the guys were lost in their own world, buzzing to the beat, delighting in the sheer joy of creating a huge sound that sparkles.

Mimas is a moon of Saturn and the smallest known astronomical body of the solar system. Mimas is also a band making a large sound: a musical Titan, if you like, befitting their mythological Greek namesake.