Product Description
2LP available at Projekt’s Bandcamp Page
2 cayman
3 dry
4 blister
5 real
6 even now
7 truly
8 when you sleep
9 something ventured
10 in the end
“A guitar-heavy shoegaze backdrop over a beautiful female voice, hovering like a red angel and instilling both fear and devotion.” – BIG TAKEOVER #44
Arising from Tallahassee, Florida, Mira formed in 1996 with vocalist Regina Sosinski, guitarist Tom Parker, bassist Max Fresen and drummer Alan Donaldson, along with second guitarist Mark Davidson and cellist Molly Cornell. After releasing several EPs on their own Tesseract label, the band signed to Projekt Records, and their song “Cayman” appeared on Projekt’s cat-themed 1999 compilation A Cat-Shaped Hole In My Heart. Mira released their eponymous debut studio album on April 4, 2000.
As part of the 2nd wave of shoegaze artists, Mira picked up the torch with a wall of delicate yet intense guitars swirling behind Regina’s blissed-out vocals expressing loss and longing, uncontainable feelings held in a fragile balance by her soaring voice.
With shoegaze in the midst of a revival thanks to social network attention bringing together fifty-something rockers, TikToking teens, and new young bands finding solace in a lush sound, Mira’s debut has an enduring relevance with its passionate sound just as powerful today as when released 24 years ago.
Mira drift on a wave of dreamy, engaging female vocals. Ripples of guitars swell against shores of post-punk structures, undulating in a surging, shoegazer undercurrent.
POST-PUNK, 2018 Definitive Dreaminess: 100 Essential Dream Pop Releases: |
Fright X Magazine“Mira is on fire. Lead vocalist Regina’s vocals effortlessly burn and bang through the myriad of soothing audio soundscapes like a red hot hammer, hitting the nail on the head at every pounding. If you thought the days of becoming addicted to a new band after the very first listen were over – guess again.” |
Alternative PressMira • A Floridian light in the darkwave tunnel. Listening to the melancholy songs of Mira, it’s hard to believe the band reside in Tallahassee, Florida. Sun, fun and college parties don’t usually encourage somber introspection, but away from the local clubs and bars featuring hard rock and ska bands, Mira’s wounded lyrics and lush guitars have attracted quite a following. “I don’t really know why people like our songs,” says singer Regina Sosinski. “I think they identify with the emotion and the music, because we are definitely not a band people come and mosh to.” The quartet’s eponymous debut (on Projekt) sounds more like a Slowdive-inspired soundtrack for nights of quiet contemplation. The swirling guitars of Tom Parker and Mark Davidson and the downtempo percussion of Alan Donaldson provide the backdrop for Sosinski’s yearning vocals. “I tend to be more withdrawn, and that’s something I’ve been dealing with lately,” says the singer. “Trying to open up and tear down internal boundaries I have and realize we are all the same inside.” After exploring the mournful depths of the human soul, what direction will Mira take next? “Our songs are getting happier,” Sosinski says. “I’m just not in a down period of my life now. The new stuff will be more about people and life.” — David Slatton |
Reviews Editor –
From Il Circolo
July 2024 Album of the Month
Three albums in five years. Then, nothing more.
It was 1996 when singer Regina Sosinski, guitarist Tom Parker, bassist Max Fresen and drummer Alan Donaldson (who would later be joined by guitarist Mark Davidson) founded in Tallahassee – Florida’s capital city certainly closer to the Deep South than to the sunny shores of the Atlantic – a band destined to become truly “cult” within the shoegaze genre.
After three self-published ep’s for their own label, called Tesseract, the band signed to Sam Rosenthal’s Projekt Records, soon becoming one of the main landmarks of the resurgent Shoegaze scene, while at the same time trespassing into the contiguous territories of Ethereal and Dream Pop.
The occasion to talk again about Mira and their eponymous debut is given by the release of its double vinyl version (also available on Bandcamp in Name-Your-Price mode), remastered and with the addition of three bonus tracks able to give further value to an album that is still magnificent today, strong with tracks that have not in the least suffered the passage of time, as for example demonstrated by an unmatched masterpiece such as Cayman; by the 80s but not nostalgic Dry; by When You Sleep, a precious cover that pays homage to the fundamental My Bloody Valentine; and by Real, in my opinion the best track on the tracklist as well as the manifesto of that movement (later defined by someone as “Nu Gaze”) that in a short time would be enriched by the many facets proper to groups such as – among others – Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeahs, M83, Jesu and Alcest.
This debut was followed in 2001 by Apart and in 2005 by There I Go Daydreamer, each carrying significant sonic and compositional developments, after which Mira disintegrated, with each of the individual members engaged in various projects however never of the highest profile, as if not wanting to obscure that authentic myth they had helped to generate. And which remains so. —Nugolo
padmin –
From Post-Punk.com
Definitive Dreaminess: 100 Essential Dream Pop Releases
Hailing from the bowels of Florida, Mira found a perfect home on Projekt Records, a label well aligned with dream pop, shoegaze, and ethereal music. Their debut, a transitional record, perfectly dabbled in all three styles over the course of nine original tracks and a beautifully understated cover of a My Bloody Valentine classic that sleepily traded in the noise and focused on the song’s true essence. The song “Cayman,” while written about a cat, tugs at the heartstrings in a way that few songs can, building upon itself with sweeping layers of guitar and Regina Sosinska’s sweetly detached vocals. -FD