A night of “Sonoran trance music”  w/ THE MYRRORS (US) + MAGGIE

The Myrrors may have ostensibly emerged out of the early years of this millenniums so-called “psychedelic rock” revival with their cult album Burning Circles In the Sky (2007), but to write them off as simply another band stuck miming the past through daisy-chained effect pedals and reverb would be a serious miscalculation. Indeed, the band itself tends to reject the “psych rock” descriptor, and even a cursory exploration of their last few records (on a slew of celebrated underground labels such as Beyond Beyond is Beyond, Fuzz Club, Cardinal Fuzz, et al.) reveals a band that has pushed far outside of what might traditionally be called “rock” of whatever sort.

Members of the group have previously referred to their music as “Sonoran Trance Music” – emphasizing both the significance of locality to the band’s artistic vision, as well as the inability to pigeonhole the ensemble’s hypnotic output in any easy genre categories. Certainly there are the fundamental building blocks of what we might call rock music – sliced-speaker guitars, electric bass, a drumkit – but these elements simply serve as subterranean infrastructure for intertwining trellises of sound that draw much more from alternative traditions such as free and spiritual jazz, classical minimalism, and Central Asian traditional music (reflecting founding member N.R. Safi‘s Afghan roots). The Sonoran desert itself might actually be most core to the band’s sound, and one could argue that the “maximal minimalism” of The Myrrors‘ denser pieces calls to mind nothing more than the sound of the world as heard from the roots of the nopál or mesquite tree – the gathered flutes, bells, bow scrapes, and shouts forming the echoes of cracked, breathing landscapes.

It is the voice of that landscape and its many inhabitants that also feeds the lyrical and philosophical content in the band’s music. Since their breakout track “Warpainting” in 2007 – a stark condemnation of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq – anti-imperialist politics.have also been essential to the group’s identity. When we last heard them on their 2018 album Borderlands, they were exploring the trauma of partition and occupation, from their home in the Sonora desert (where long-standing communities have been split by the imposition of an artificial, militarised boundary line) to South Asia to Palestine and beyond. Their new record “Land Back” (out August 2025) builds on these themes and refracts them back through the lens of the myriad anti-colonial movements that sought to challenge them, with shout-outs to both revolutionary psycho-analyst Franz Fanon and the 1955 Bandung Conference that birthed the so-called “Non-Aligned Movement.” All of this is rooted in a sonic humus that should be familiar to those who’ve traced the contours of the band’s work as well as revealing new sides to their art – from the insistent rallying cry of the title track to the kaleidoscopic swirl of cassette tape loops, megaphone squall, and strings that is “Bakú a Bandung.” Erstwhile drummer Grant Beyschau‘s saxophone has also reached a new level of expressiveness, and now stands strikingly at the forefront of the band’s sound, twisted and warped through a bevy of analogue tape echos and effects.

Live performances, while noticeably more stripped down affairs than those captured in the band’s recorded output, are perhaps the key to understanding the ensemble’s praxis here. Infinite, swirling, organic rhythms without flash or pretention in which one might lose one’s sense of self and approach something elemental and earthen. Over the years the band has built up a concurrent reputation through its tours across the United States and Europe, with notable stops at festivals such as Le Guess Who?, Desert Daze, Grauzone, and Levitation Festival.

MAGGIE
Maggie Khorrami is a Netherlands-based experimental noise musician, sound artist, and
sound engineer. Her work spans sound and light installations, collaborative audiovisual
projects, and live electro-acoustic performances.
Working within the realms of industrial and noise-based sound, she creates raw, textured
sonic environments. Her compositions weave together electronics, voice, and a custom-
built electronic violin, resulting in emotionally charged and structurally dense pieces. Her
practice is informed by themes of social unrest, political tension, and the complexities of
human connection.
Through her ongoing exploration of experimental techniques and innovative tools, Maggie
pushes the boundaries of traditional violin performance. By merging unconventional
approaches with advanced technology, she navigates the chaos and intricacy of the modern
world—using sound as a space for both personal reflection and collective resonance.

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