Tiger Mimic – Where The Fire Used To Be (31% Wool)
London-based indie rockers Tiger Mimic return with another racing single with Where The Fire Used To Be, and the Film Noir video is the perfect watch with the track.
Artist: Tiger Mimic
Track: Where The Fire Used To Be
Label: 31% Wool
Released: 14 August 2020
Find it: Spotify | Bandcamp
There’s no hanging about with this Where The Fire Used To Be, the latest single from London-based indie rockers Tiger Mimic, with a kick in to a dancefloor-filling early Arctic-Monkeys-evoking riff. Bram leads us in here, and it’s a stomper filling your head and tapping your feet.
But…but…but…before the verse has even really got its pace and you’ve got your bearings the whole thing spins into a slower pace with Jess taking over on vocals, giving it a cinematic sweep and teasing with what will become the chorus line. We’ve a couple more revolutions to go through before we get there though, including marching beats and gang vocals. The song doesn’t leave it there either, there is a frenetic thrash-out and returns from both vocalists with their matching riffs and rhythms. The song could be a mess with what could have been numerous songs mashed together, but it’s expertly pieced together to become a Bohemian Rhapsody-styled story delivered by acts in a cohesive albeit dizzying whole.
With plenty of chants helping to transition between parts it’s the sort of song which would echo through smoke-hazed campsites, passed infectiously from reveller to reveller as a primal connection, following a heated and hyped performance on stage. The sort of track which pivots a night from simmering energy through to full on frenzy. This is the sort of indie rock which you’ve been waiting for even if you didn’t know.
Not only that but the femme fatale trope of film noir is employed to brilliant effect in the video for the track. The classic bait-and-switch sees the band take on the roles in a well shot, fun storyline echoing everything from The Maltese Falcon to Who Shot Roger Rabbit. And following the long-established code our femme fatale here gets her comeuppance and order is restored as she gives her dying breath to a final repeat of the song’s title and everything fades to grey.
The riffs of this track will stay with you though (yes, all of them), evoking the best of ’00s indie with sexy, dangerous, and bordering on the immoral catchiness. A band that has quickly built a glowing reputation doing it in fine style again with this latest release.
Where The Fire Used To Be by Tiger Mimic is out now.
Find Tiger Mimic: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Spotify | Bandcamp
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Sarah Lay
A long-standing music journalist she's also co-founder of independent record label Reckless Yes, an author of novels, and when not messing around with words and music, a digital strategist.
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