New (-ish??) MIR: “みんな死ぬ”

It’s easy to forget in a world where information buzzes about at the same rate lolcats spill out of the Internet’s tubes, but sometimes turning away from the rush of now can be a swell idea. This seems especially true for those who breathe music blogs – and, of course, those who write them. New tracks from projects formed the afternoon before crop up online every hour, forcing readers to either try keep pace or find themselves lagging behind, unable to keep up with the cool kid’s Tumblrs. Yet in the rush to keep up to date, all sorts of good sounds get left in the dust. It’s tough to enjoy new tunes when you’re Daytona 500-ing from trend to trend.

Which is all to say – I totally missed this new song from MIR last month but that won’t stop me from writing about it now. “みんな死ぬ” follows the group’s soul-crushingly triumph “TV 2010” with somewhat of an about face – “TV 2010” used clear production to make MIR’s New Wave synths sound extra bright – before they turn it into something suffocating. Their latest embraces a more rough style – the pulsing electronics of “TV 2010” pushed aside in favor of a clunky drum beat and extremely muffled vocals. This is what chillwave would sound like if folks tried recording honest-to-goodness New Wave on a four-track instead of memories of it…and then made the whole thing incredibly offsetting in a highly listenable way. It’s not as seductive as “TV 2010” – that song lured you in with pleasant sounds before smothering you with a pillow, “みんな死ぬ” has Freddy Kruger claws drawn from the start – but pulls the listener in a different way, highlighting MIR’s ability to constantly bend their sound into something new. Being a month behind should doom whatever HypeMachine cred I have (none, in case your curious) but this one’s worth it. Listen here.