Search - Mirah & Spectratone International :: Share This Place: Stories & Observations

Music Alt Parents and Kids alike will love

E. Arnold | KC Metro | 08/27/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"We listen to this CD every night as we prepare dinner. So cool and fun, great lyrics, crazy different music from anything on the radio right now."

Worth digging into

Andrew Sosnowski | N.Y. | 04/11/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is an ambitious adventurous concept album by Mirah and Spectratone International (the original work was commissioned for an art gallery and included animation). These are songs written from the point of view of insects with accompaniment by a "chamber" group (of accordion, string instruments and percussion).

Mirah's voice can be stunning and passionate and the music is complex and unpredictable with sudden major shifts.

But I struggled with this album; it took a while to grow on me. Some of the songs grate on my nerves whereas others, where it feels like everything meshes, are exceptionally lovely. Many songs are based on dance forms and are surprisingly successfully danceable!

I would like to see a little more explanation of these songs; I feel like I may be missing something although I like some mystery; the lyrics quoted below are by ear and may not be entirely correct and some songs I was not able to make out in their entirety.



My favorite songs are Luminescence (a love song with a relaxed Samba style where the voice and Accordion and humor of the lyrics shine) which starts:





Luminescence is ours; don't need a reason ...

shine like a beacon; I've got the brilliance to let him know

I am so ready to glow

This light is soft in the night like a sigh



brilliantly I oxidize

a belly fully of bright







Then there is Love Song of the Fly (another stimulatingly unusual love song between a fly and a human that has a beautiful romantic guitar intro):





I permit myself the nearness of you

Even just the scent of what you left behind

sends me in circles of lust

Please render me adoringly



Oh, why do you despise me, only criticize me

A Love that resides in kaleidescope eyes

you only think me base and dirty

you multiplying in my eyes







Ecclycis is tango-like (how can you not like a song with a name like this?):





Upside down, split from the ground

insides out and gyrate?

I begin to pupate

cause all my tissues to rearrange

green and gold is getting old

prepare to know my indigo

I'm getting out, I'm getting out





My Lord Who Hums (with great atmospheric accompaniment):





If I am killed and not understood

You will never learn what you could

I am the Lord of the flies

I have been swallowed and re-birthed

I am your kin





Supper (perhaps this is a cha-cha?) goes as follows:





My villainy is rare

just like any other gadabout

I vanquish you with kisses, a dubious caress

in truth it is a poison

Liquefaction is a skill which I possess





Another is Song of Psyche (again Accordion and percussion and the concept shine).



Emergence of the Primary Larva (this accompaniment takes time to grow on one as it is fresh-sounding)



"