Mi Ami

Watersports

BY Brock ThiessenPublished Feb 11, 2009

When Dischord's Black Eyes emerged out of DC in the early 2000s, it was tough to know what to make of them. But then again, there wasn't much time. The experimental hardcore outfit broke up after only a few years, leaving behind just two full-lengths of hyper-percussive chaos and one hell of a headache. Now out of Black Eyes' sweltering ashes have come Mi Ami, a stripped-down three-piece that take the spastic free-for-all, calms it way down and lets the beat take over. It's a welcomed exercise in restraint for Mi Ami's debut album, Watersports, with the record's gauzy post-punk dub sounding like a hipster's wet dream. Hinting at PiL's Metal Box, early Out Hud and Gang Gang Dance, Mi Ami let loose a hypnotic stream of punk tribalism, coming in and out of tropics-obsessed jams with delayed guitars, world-beat aerobics and front-man Daniel Martin-McCormick's squealing vocal catharsis. It's all likely best consumed south of the equator but at home, Watersports still easily leaves a dent on the psyche, not to mention stands as an exceptional debut.
(Quarterstick)

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