Opal – activemirror (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

The thing about preconceptions is how much fun it is to watch them being blown apart. So, when I read that activemirror is a band from Aruba, I naturally assumed that the sunny climes and the beautiful vistas would come through in their music, that somehow it would be warm and welcoming, joyous and jaunty. I couldn’t have been so wrong. Booooom!

As soon as “Opal,” their latest single, creeps into the public consciousness, your immediate thoughts go to the dark Mancunian skies that seemed to drain the colour out of Joy Division’s music or the dreary claustrophobia of The Cure’s suburban hell. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it is far from it. That is what I get from judging books by their covers if you know what I mean.

Then, of course, you remember that everyone has a rite of passage; everyone needs an outlet for the frustrations of the coming-of-age process. A way of sounding off about life and all its myriad moods. Whether you find yourself in a Carribean idyll or a redbrick cage, music is often the answer. Actually, music is, in my experience, always the answer.

“Opal” is the sound of young men expressing themselves over brooding basslines, cool rhythmic drumming, shimmering razor-wire guitars, and chilled sonic soundscaping. Somehow, they capture that same chilled wind that blew through the best of the UK post-punk music in the eighties, and they do so via some great melodic hooks and danceable grooves.

Sure, you wouldn’t naturally expect such a cold eastern wind to be carried along on a band’s music when they from somewhere as sunkissed as Aruba. Berlin perhaps, even Manchester. But then, as the band themselves point out, “being from Aruba is the least interesting thing about them”. I have nothing against Aruba, but I am inclined to agree with them!