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Somebody has to be MINO MINO. Obviously, someone is going to be them. You don't just… or maybe you do… but generally you don't set up a SoundCloud and then almost overnight get like a zillion plays. I reckon it's the side project of somebody already established. I went back to see the first people they followed, and the very first one was Maxo. Maxo… Mino… Hmm. But that can't be it. Then again, maybe you really can set up a SoundCloud, follow the right people, get noticed quick-fast. BUT I am not a detective! What do I know! I know absolutely nothing! Who am I! GRAAAAARRRRGH!!1
Anyway, MINO MINO or Mino Mino or mino mino is a new musicmaker and their name is a repetition of the word Mino which is the name of a number of places in Japan as well as the name (kanji: 蓑) for a traditional Japanese straw cape, see here for details. It could also be a truncation of 'Minogue' maybe that's it. Etymology and identity aside, the music itself is really interesting. Most recently they put up a track called 'TBH' which kinda sounds like an electronic djent track vaguely crossed with the suspenseful music from Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine.
However, I first stumbled across them thanks to a track called 'GLOWING' or 'Glowing' or 'glowing' so, yeah. Again there's this atmosphere of tension, a impending threat, a mist of grit to it, sonically illustrated with schizophrenic insectoid synth rapid-chirruping high up the register, a bulging bassline – the type from Goldeneye (N64) – enacting a few notes of threat for some sweaty-palmed terror.
Elsewhere it glitters with nocturnal sophistication, sweeping pianos lending it a noir jazz air. All the time it is hotly dynamic, always shifting, an ADHD étude where hi-hats tick and shiver, morphing from glassy to abrasive, where toms tumble together, breaks in the low end of the track – including clusters of polished kicks – giving the track, and you, some room to breathe. It's the soundtrack to looking round the corner of a corridor you don't wanna go down. Or a road you don't wanna walk down. Or a fantasy heist. More than anything else it sounds like videogame music and that's a mega plus for me; that it can conjure so many things, I think this says more about the production (which is super-polished and fine-tuned as it is, regardless of imagination) than it does about me.
It also does say a lot about how being an enigma or operating with a certain air of mystery makes everyone lose their shit over you, i.e. makes you a more attractive artist to want to follow / listen to.
☟ Mino Mino Social Media Presence ☟
SoundCloud •
Twitter
A juddering twang of a synth bass, halfway between doinging a ruler on a table and the crundering of a plectrum picked bass guitar, a sort of synthesised bass vibraslap, and it pops out with groove that sits simply in the bottom layers of this bitesized track called 'Falcon' from newcomer 11:37—this enigmatic name is taken, the musicmaker says in the track's description, from their time of birth. Although in this digital setting, something they wrote calls to mind a DIY ethic that is often overlooked when it comes to SoundCloud producers: "Saw no need to draw it out," they said, "because if the Ramones can keep it short and sweet why can't I."
