The AIRBORNE VIRUS label is run by Sean Brooks of MINMAE, who also record for other labels. As well as Airborne Virus, Sean runs the offshoot label TRY NOT TO LOOK, which releases records in smaller quantities. Over the past few months I've received a few 7"s and CDs from Sean, some on his labels and some on other labels featuring Minmae.

Try Not To Look have put out a split 7" with Minmae and Morose. Minmae have two tracks - the first is instrumental indierock that turns into a minimal, atmospheric keyboard piece for the last few seconds. The next track is slightly off-centre lo-fi indiepop. 'Dark' and 'melancholic' aren't strictly the words to describe this but are the closest ones I can think of. Sounds along the lines of Hood's quieter, guitar based songs. I much prefer the melodic side of Minmae to the experimental noise side, so it's good to hear Minmae are heading more in the melodic direction these days. These two songs are worth a listen. Morose are another good lo-fi band, making ramshackle homemade pop with the usual instruments plus flute and something else that's not mentioned in the sleeve notes but sounds like an accordion.

Onq is an Italian musician who has recorded with Morose (but didn't appear to be in the line-up for the above single). He has collaborated with Minmae for a 7" EP on Dhyana Records, with the bizarre title of Bound to the Whips of the Aeronautical Fatwa. There's a massive 10 tracks on this 7", which has an overall lo-fi, off-centre, slightly dark pop theme, but there's lots of variety as some tracks are quiet, some are noisy, some are electronic, some are atmospheric. As well as tracks with vocals, they do a few instrumentals - one is a huge wall of sound thing, rather shoegazerish; another is rather eerie and sounds experimental but still melodic; one is a fairly discordant noise track but it's more tuneful than much other stuff of this ilk; and another is an atmospheric keyboard piece.

Finnish label Octane Grammophon has released a 2 track 7" by Minmae, My First Brush With Infinity. The first track We're All Friends Here has an electronic hum, drums and spoken word, then some noisy guitar comes in. The track then goes on for a while as a noisy but melodic guitar instrumental, then at the end it's just drums/cymbals. I'm Getting Out Of Forensics starts with a one-note drone that goes on for quite a while, long enough to make me think the whole track was going to be one note! Fortunately it's not though! The rest of it is a melodic guitar instrumental with some noisy guitar in the background. Both tracks here are very different to the lo-fi pop stuff heard on the split single with Morose, but are tuneful enough to be classed as 'good' by me!

Minmae have a 5 track CD EP out on Dogprint, Lucy in the Sky with DNA Helixes. Passed Out Returning From Someplace Else I Dreampt (sic) This is instrumental post-rock with a few discordant bits. Sequestered But Not Forgotten is good noisy but melodic indierock. Sword/Stone is another good one - indierock again but not so noisy, except for a shouty bit near the end. All Notes Ghostnotes is an atmospheric noisy song, a bit shoegazerish. Let Boredom Have the Dance is slightly off-centre and fairly dark indierock with piano. Some good examples of the song-based side of Minmae here.

Out on Airborne Virus is the Minmae CD Vonsachiang, or How I Learned To Stop Hating Pretty Girls and Television and Start Appreciating Being a Dolt. This has an entirely luminous pink cover with no text other than a tiny 'Made in Canada'; all the track info is contained on an insert which proclaims 'This is an alternative rock record'. And it's not wrong - this is lo-fi, mostly melodic indierock with some noisy & shouty bits, elements of post-rock, dreampop and experimentation. There are a few bits that are too noisy/experimental, like the somewhat self-indulgent noise piece at the end of Less Than Or Equal To, but in the main this is from the melodic side of Minmae, good lo-fi indierock.

Blackbean & Placenta have released a Minmae CD called My Quiet Life, which includes a mixture of previously unreleased tracks and songs that have previously appeared on comps & 7"s. This has a mixture of lo-fi pop, spacey indiepop, melodic post-rock, a piano based song, a psychedelic instrumental and the more interesting side of experimental music. Good use of violin and piano, instruments not often used by Minmae. A good variety of sounds - I'd recommend this as an ideal introduction to Minmae.

19 Ways to Avoid the Draft is a very nicely packaged compilation CD released jointly by Airborne Virus and Mar/ino. Minmae are of course featured, and there's also contributions from Gang Wizard, Halkyn, Karina ESP, Monera, Drekka, Clouddead, Moral Crayfish, Seaworthy, Like Millions, Electroscope, Steward, Ms Black, Static Films, Fed Cast & the Spiders from Mars, Empress, Women and Nylon Coated Cats. Includes off-centre indierock, folky/spacey pop, noisepop, indiepop, strange dark pop, experimental pop, instrumental experimentation, drone-based and non-drone-based post-rock; much of it being worth checking out.

For information on Minmae, Airborne Virus and Try Not To Look: fakeminmae@hotmail.com

Onq/Minmae 7": dhyanarec@compuserve.de

Lucy in the Sky CD: dogprint@dogprint.com

My Quiet Life CD: bbptc@ix.netcom.com

My First Brush with Infinity 7": octane@sunpoint.net

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