Orange County singer-songwriter John Oganeku started his post-punk project Meeting Mirror in 2021. A songwriter and musician since the age of 14, the 22-year-old plays and self-produces all of his work from his bedroom studio. The name of his band is a tribute to his father, who was the singer for the 1980s new wave band Mirror Image.
Meeting Mirror’s new EP Four is pure, unrefined post-punk, with spare guitars, and echoing voices. For this album, Oganeku brought his brother on board to play on the record with him, expanding his minimalist sound. Oganeku’s rich voice is highly emotive, juxtaposed with guitars, bass, and drums on this album.
“My brother and I wrote this E.P. in November,” says Oganeku. “The process for the album was simple; every song was written from us just jamming with me on bass and my brother on drums. Adding my brother to the project made a huge difference and made writing and recording a lot easier.”
With this collection of four tracks, we hear heavy influence from the guitar work of A Flock of Seagulls, a band Oganeku cites as an inspiration. The album opens with the melancholy Hurts, a ghostly anthem with a painful refrain. Not My Fault is a call and response with one’s self, an argument never quite finding a resolution. The style of early U2’s ringing guitars and yelps come through in the intro for Restless, but at a more sluggish Joy Division pace. Some Of Us closes the album: a sing-song chant with nervous hi-hat taps and soaring guitar work.
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