Mirza profile picture

Mirza

About Me

In the beginning was Alger Hiss, a group consisting of Glenn, Steve, Mark, and Jason Honea (Knit Separates, The Shitty Listener, The Child Readers, etc). Brian joined a few months later on keyboards. They played one show opening for Frightwig, a chaotic and hallucinatory event. Around this time Jason was developing his own musical vision at a trajectory from where Alger Hiss was heading, so he jumped ship to eventually form the Knit Separates. Deciding to go instrumental the group renamed themselves Ursa Minor.

After releasing the "Number One" album on their own Autopia label, UM was notified to cease using the band name as another group claimed it.

Mirza was found at random in a dictionary. It's a term of royalty.

Copies of the Ursa Minor "Number One" album are out there somewhere. Later on the group created hand-painted covers and 'released' it under the name Mirza.

The group recorded "Anadromous" with Tim Green for Darla's Bliss Out series in 1997.

In 1998 "Iron Compass Flux" was released, having been recorded by Kyle Statham (of Fuck) in the Tenderloin and by Mirza in S. and G.'s house. Tim Green was at the post-production mixing board

Mirza's few live shows (as well as rehearsals) consisted of long improvisations that were physically/psychically exhausting--the band taking tone, timbre, and rhythm as far as humanly possible, often collapsing onto the floor in ecstasy like real saints should. Just as they were on the peak of financial and artistic success (having gained more fans by opening for the Dirty Three, Windy and Carl, and Calexico) the group witnessed the departure of Mark to Spain and Brian to New York and Thailand.

"Last Clouds," released posthumously in 2001, includes the "Ursa Minor" album and pummeling/soothing improvisations recorded by the band from '96-'98 or so.

Glenn and Steve (together and singularly) have gone on to create astoundingly beautiful music as Thuja, Hala Strana, the Blythe Sons, the Skygreen Leopards, the Giant Skyflower Band, as well as founding the Jewelled Antler Collective (with Loren Chasse). Mark and Brian, in 2005, embarked on recording three albums under the Father Beard moniker. Brian currently plays as Old Million Eye

Discography:

"Number One" (Autopia 1996)-- Ursa Minor/ Mirza- self-titled (hand-painted sleeves)

"Anadromous" (Darla 1997)

"Iron Compass Flux" (Darla 1998)

"Last Clouds" (BaDaBing! 2001)

Compilations:

"Hope" (as Ursa Minor)-- Little Darla has a Treat for You, vol. 5 (Darla 1997)

"Bless this Gathering"-- Little Darla has a Treat for You, vol. 7--(Darla 1997)

"Blood was the Food" --Galactic Zoo Dossier 4 (2001)

"Bicentennial" -- Little Darla has a Treat for You, vol. 8 (Darla 1998) (re-released on Darla 100, 4xcd)

"Weather" (collaboration with Music for Tunnels)-- released with Badaboom Gramophone 3 (1998)

"A Bower in the Arsacides" -- released with Ptolemaic Terrascope 26 (1999)

"Pink Skies (live)/The Seven Lights"-- Topography of Indefinite Impressions (Autopia 1999)

"The First Lowering" --released with Galactic Zoo Dossier 5

Thanks to www.worstward.com for information

+++

Ancient History Lesson

Pre-Alger Hiss Glenn and Steve were members of post-punk outfit Pile (w/ Rob Reger of Thuja, This Isn't It, and Emily Strange infamy). Brian played with Dark Horse Candidate. Santa Cruz/Tulare, CA

http://scum.wikia.com/wiki/Dark_Horse_Candidate

http://scum.wikia.com/wiki/Pile

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 17/04/2007
Band Website: [email protected]
Band Members: Glenn Donaldson, Brian Lucas, Steven R. Smith, Mark Williams
Influences: Can, Swans, Magic Hour, Jefferson Airplane, MC5, the Stooges, Zoviet France, Pentangle, Brian Eno, Fairport Convention, Swell Maps
Sounds Like:

“Improv doesn’t have to be the sort of highbrow, jazzbo meandering that most people associate with the term. Rather, Mirza takes the form the way of discordant rock and makes it a powerful force to be reckoned with.” -Big Takeover

“Mirza makes very refreshing and exciting instrumental music, that ebbs and flows and always keeps you guessing.” -Aural Innovations

"Mirza's third record, "Iron Compass Flux," is sinister and menacing and will take you on a disorienting trip..." - Epitonic


Record Label: Darla, BaDaBing!, Autopia
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

Ba Da Bing!- Last Clouds

Mirza was a San Francisco improv group whose members went on to be in Thuja and Steven R. Smith, both of whom now record for Emperor Jones. Through their two full-length releases on Darla, the band ...
Posted by on Wed, 18 Apr 2007 10:09:00 GMT

Anadromous- Magnet Nov/Dec 1997

Magnet (11-12/97, p.72) - "...This instrumental quartet scoops up dusky gems from the kingly vaults of days past, polishes them with Midas gloves and alchemizes them into contemporary crown jewels.....
Posted by on Wed, 18 Apr 2007 10:00:00 GMT

Anadromous review- All Music Guide

Part of Darla's Bliss Out series, Anadromous finds Mirza mostly pursuing longer efforts, totaling four songs over 40 minutes. Though there are instances here of the group's excellence at mind-melt...
Posted by on Wed, 18 Apr 2007 09:26:00 GMT

History of Rock Music

http://www.scaruffi.com/vol5/mirza.html#first
Posted by on Wed, 18 Apr 2007 09:23:00 GMT

reviews-Aural Innovations #5

From Aural Innovations #5 (January 1999) Mirza is a band I discovered totally by accident. I was scanning the Darla Records homepage looking for another title, and the mini-review of Flux just caugh...
Posted by on Wed, 18 Apr 2007 09:22:00 GMT