To everyone’s surprise, MIRAR have the gall to drop some mind-bending thall out of absolute nowhere.
Release date: January 1, 2025 | Independent | Bandcamp
I’m getting serious déjà vu as I sit down to write this as it wasn’t that long ago that I was just talking about MIRAR‘s Mare. After such a really exciting debut EP, I wouldn’t have expected a full length to follow suit in such a short period of time, especially one of this quality. With the state of the world actively tanking as fast as the value did for that HAWKTUAH memecoin, Ascension is an apt soundtrack that mirrors the chaotically sporadic beginning of the apocalypse that we’re witnessing unfold in real time.
Mare was a bold opening statement from the French duo that immediately put them on the radar of any and every thall enthusiast out there with a pulse, and for good reason. Last I spoke about them, I went on record to say that MIRAR are the first and only Vildhjarta ‘clone’ to prove that they’re more than just a ‘clone’ hopping on the thall fad. With Ascension, not only do I still stand by that statement, but MIRAR is silently nudging Vildhjarta to push their musical limits even more. It’s not necessarily a competition but this sort of thing should fuel bands/artists off one another to continue to push the boundaries of the subgenre, much like Meshuggah did back in the day for countless bands. Hell, they still do it.
This particular album dropped without any advance notice right at the turn of the new year, so it was even more of a surprise had it been released any other day of the year. It was a dire need to direct those sound waves through my ears. That first time listening through, I put my headphones on, pressed play, and walked away leaving my phone out of quick reach. The way the intro track kicks off the record left me confused, as I genuinely thought the music players on my phone somehow switched and something else was playing instead of MIRAR. “Couronne” consisted of grandiose, orchestral soundscapes reminiscent of M83’s Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming and I was honestly floored by that alone. Then as that track faded and “Tombe” followed, it immediately became apparent that I wasn’t mistaken after all. It was now time to feast.
If you already know what MIRAR are capable of, then you are going to get precisely what you wished for with Ascension. The ‘worst’ thing about Mare was that it was only an EP, so understandably we’d all be left craving more of those earth-shattering drops and erratic compositional change-ups, in which Ascension more than delivers on that front. The horrifyingly haunting “Faux-Amis” is by far the highlight track of the bunch, especially with the swirling, eerie synths (starting at 1:40) making this track even dizzying than it already is. It is always those not-so-subtle background effects that elevate these songs, as was the case with “Rose Bonbon” off of the preceding EP. The biggest differences felt on Ascension are the increasing use of electronic effects (see “Sur Ses Épaules”) and the overall conciseness, well, as much as can be said for MIRAR.
When I reflect on what about MIRAR’s music that is so fascinating to me, I always find myself circling back to the enjoyment derived from my super brief foray with dubstep back in the early 2010’s – y’know, Skrillex, Celldweller, DjEphixa remixes and the like. While that style of electronic music (especially modern forms of it) isn’t something that I personally get any enjoyment out of at the current stage in my life (that and the rave scene), MIRAR is out here triggering activation of the exact same neuronal networks. While MIRAR is hugely different and occupies a completely different musical space/niche, at its very essence, it is all and one the same in the grand scheme of things. I feel like I am the monkey in that ‘neuronal activation’ meme whenever I put on MIRAR. I am left constantly asking myself if I’m a hypocrite for enjoying this despite defiantly distancing myself from modern forms of dubstep like it’s the bubonic plague. Honestly, yeah, a little bit… I’m not afraid to admit that. I suppose you could call it ‘dubstep in disguise for people who don’t want to admit they listen to anything tangentially related to dubstep’ and you wouldn’t be wrong.
Anyways, despite that common thread with dubstep in overall appeal, the drawbacks too are shared. The more that I listen to this album for the sake of putting this review together, the degree of musical fatigue felt here is far greater than it would be for literally anything else that could be listened to for an equal amount of time. The more I listen, the less desire I have to revisit it, especially so soon. Again, I want to emphasize that this doesn’t purely boil down to being bored with the music after many listens in a short period of time, but rather that the inherent nature of MIRAR’s music as a whole being so fatiguing with how erratic and ‘aimless’ the songs are compositionally. It is just a lot at once and there is essentially zero breathing room given for the listener to gasp for air before being pulled back under the tsunami of jagged riffs and catastrophic drops. MIRAR is sensory overload in musical form and that is where Vildhjarta reigns supreme (again, not a competition but you get what I mean).
MIRAR’s Ascension is your own personal DOOM soundtrack as you navigate your daily commute, manipulate gravity to push the limits of your physical being, or just to dissociate from life because we all need to do that from time to time. It is a breath of fresh air in a (sub)genre diluted with other bands that fail to be half as exciting as this French duo. While Ascension does slightly ‘suffer from success’ due to it being an LP consisting of one exhausting musical hurricane after another, it is still a wildly enjoyable and unique listening experience that only they can provide.
