''Mirror Mirror'' is the debut album by Melbourne-based

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band Dardanelles released in September 2007.

Background

Taking their fans by surprise, Dardanelles' debut album proved to be a departure from their guitar infused debut EP, filled with dark haunting vocals and complex electronic soundscapes. It was recorded over a 30-day period at 001 Studio in Collingwood with producer Woody Annison, who had previously worked with fellow Australian bands

Red Riders Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondary ...

and Children Collide. The mysterious atmosphere can be attributed in part to the band listening to

Vangelis Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou ( el, Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου ; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( ; el, Βαγγέλης, links=no ), was a Greek composer and arranger of ...

, particularly the

Blade Runner ''Blade Runner'' is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott, and written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick' ...

soundtrack a great deal throughout the making of the album. Some have likened the main guitar riff to the track "Mirror Mirror" to Scott Walker's "Cossacks Are". "Rip it Up" magazine proclaimed "Mirror Mirror" as "the finest Australian album of 2007 bar none". The single Footsteps was subsequently released via

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and received heavy rotation on

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and

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

based

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making it the second most added track to alternative radio in Australia behind Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Melbourne’s

Inpress ''Inpress'' was a free weekly tabloid-sized music magazine (street press) that was published in Melbourne, and was released in the Geelong and Mornington Peninsula areas of Victoria, Australia. The magazine was published by Street Press Austr ...

magazine made "Mirror Mirror" their #6 Album of the year (surpassing

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) with only 2 Australian albums ranked in the top 10. An extensive National tour followed in late October 2007 covering most states and territories including

Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...

and the album was subsequently reissued in 2008 with a second disc featuring 8 bonus tracks.

Track listing

# "Introduction" - 3.01 # "Alone Is Not" - 5.01 # "Natural Selection" - 3.56 # "Footsteps" - 3.42 # "Mirror Mirror" - 5.09 # "Dream Into Me" - 2.59 # "Once And Future Child" - 3.31 # "Cycles Repeat" - 3.24 # "Morse Code" - 4.37 # "Dominoes Dance" - 3.42 # "One + One (iTunes exclusive track)" - 2.47 # "Stop (iTunes exclusive track)" - 3.50

Personnel

*Josh Quinn-Watson (vocals, keyboard, samples) *Alex Cameron (guitar, vocals) *James Nicolson (bass) *Mitch McGregor (drums) *Woody Annison (producer)

Video clips

Melbourne based agency "Moop Jaw" produced a video clip for "Mirror Mirror" from the point of view of a camera rotating in the middle of a black room. It features the band performing in various formations and lighting setups with sporadic physical effects in the background. Another Melbourne based agency "Krozm" produced a subsequent video clip for "Footsteps" featuring face-painted band members projected across various objects and highly surreal imagery reminiscent of

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...

's video work. *
"Footsteps" video clip on MySpace TV

References

Beat magazine review by Jaymz Clements

Rip it Up magazine review by Scott McLennan interview

Notes

External links

*
"Footsteps" video clip on MySpace TV

Official MySpace
{{Authority control 2007 albums Dardanelles (band) albums