Psychic Ills – Mirror Eye (Social Registry, 2009)
There aren’t too many records that can actually compare to Dins (Social Registry, 2006). It’d be nice if there were, but music geeks just aren’t that lucky.
After that first full length, the Brooklyn based Psychic Ills saw fit to issue some previously recorded work in the guise of Early Violence (Social Registry, 2007). That disc, while still tangentially related to what fans heard on Dins, was more tied to sad-sack Brit rock than anything. And while it was a decent listen, Early Violence was never intended to compete with the band’s first full musical statement.
The release of Mirror Eye, though, has come to mean more than just a continuation of where the Ills were a few years back. Out of the eight tracks that make up this new disc, only half could have made an appearance on Dins. That’s not to say that the other four offerings are detached from their musical lineage, but simply different.
“Mantis” and “Meta” begin the album in typical serpentine fashion, gliding just above what rock music is supposed to be, even touching on electronic gadgetry. But what this disc accidentally asserts is that there will always be a cottage industry of record freaks pushing out original music. And even beyond that, there’ll always be a market for this type of work.
If half of the album is tied to previous efforts from the Ills, then the other tracks may well be the footing for the band to move onto something new – to them at least. The mostly instrumental and overwhelmingly minimal constructions of various tripped out sounds and bizarre instrument voicings don’t mark a new period for the grand tapestry of music, but instead show these Brooklynites further incorporating disparate and difficult influences into their work.
As a result of this perceived mutation in its aural approach, it might well serve the band to examine how this new clutch of tracks affects fans. While Dins sported what could only loosely be referred to as songs, Mirror Eye is even less concrete. The band’s guitarist Tres Warren figures that “Structure can exist in different ways and it doesn’t need to always exist.”
With his vague and philosophical understanding of music, it would be reasonable to believe that fans of the Psychic Ills might have some of the same perceptions. However, the work spring forth from Mirror Eye sounds strictly tied to studio gimmickry in a number of ways.
When asked about performing these new constructions live, bassist Elizabeth Hart explains, “We haven’t played all the songs on the record out because some of them were created in the studio and would not necessarily translate live,” which sounds rather sensible. But also because of the improvised nature of the band’s music, she concludes that, “we are not trying to replicate the songs that we do play live, we leave a lot of space to see what happens or how they will unfold in each particular setting.”
That response, though, seems as good a reason as any other to hunt down the Ills at their next performance and hear how the band re-imagines its newest work.
Live @ the Funhouse
