Giardini Di Miro
Hits For Broken Hearts And Asses
(2.nd Rec)
Giardini Di Miro is a group that has been around for going on a decade now and have slowly gained fans through a decent amount of touring and a steadily-increasing quality of music. In addition to a great title, Hits For Broken Hearts And Asses is a collection of earlier and out-of-print releases by the group. While much of the 12 tracks and 65 minutes of music aren't the most innovative work every laid to tape, there are some gems here and there on the release and show a real progression in sound for fans wanting to get a better idea of what they're about.
Moving in reverse chronological order (newest come first while oldest are last), the disc spans 6 years of recorded material. The disc opens with "A New Start For Shoegazing Kids," and the slow-burner is easily one of the best on the entire release as pretty guitar melodies play off one another and a layer of organ shrouds everything with a bit of tension. "Penguin Serenade" drops some Rhodes and horns into the mix for a surprisingly bright feel while "Juicefuls" finds the group tweaking and fitting in sounds from the artist Pimmon (who in turn processed work by the group for his own tracks) for a creeky bit of lo-fi post bedroom pop.
While there are highlights scattered throughout the latter bits of the release, the group is unfortunately not nearly as developed as they are on their newer releases such as The Rise And Fall Of Academic Drifting. Much of the early work is somewhat noodling, early Mogwai-esque guitar ramblings with occasional rock-out moments. It's not to say it's horrible, but if you've listened to much at all in similar genres, you've most likely heard many things like it before. While the release does make it very evident that the group has come a long way in terms of composition and dynamics, this is one disc that's mainly for the hardcore fans who want everything without having to hunt down out-of-print releases.
Rating: 5.5
