Mirrors

Lights And Offerings

Release date:

Their debut and what a fine one! This was released in the UK on CD in February 2011 and on vinyl in May 2011.

There are quite a lot of variations and bonus CD’s which I have tried to outline below.

The album was released on 28 February 2011, though Skint put a digital copy up for sale on their online web store on 29 January 2011 by mistake. This sale was pulled within hours.

The band originally planned to release their 2010 Hamburg performance on a bonus CD as part of a deluxe album after its initial release date, but these plans were cancelled.

As with the Broken By Silence EP, it is difficult to get good quality scans or photos of the artwork due to the colors used for this release. For this reason, the results tend to look more brownish instead of actual grey.

Look At Me was initially released in October 2009 on single as a different recording.

Same for Into The Heart which was initially released as a single and a different recording in November 2009. A very early version, possibly a demo, exists with different lyrics.

Write Through The Night was originally called Organ Song. The band released a 4:13 demo version in October 2009 through their MySpace page and a different 4:26 demo version on the promotional Coming 2010 CD. An instrumental version exists of this 4:26 demo as well. A very early version exists with possibly live drums and alternate lyrics. It runs nearly 5 minutes at 4:52 and might be from the Mumm-Ra era.

A 3:44 demo of Hide And Seek was shared by the band on the internet, probably in 2009. This demo was marked as V5.1 internally by the band. Vince Clark remixed this song, probably in 2010, which has to date not been released.

A radically different version of Perfectly Still exists on a rare one-off demo CD. There is also a very nice demo version which is closer to the released version, although it contains some very nice alternate atmospheric sections. This was shared by the band through Facebook on 15 March 2011.

Secrets originally started off as a Mumm-Ra song, potentially for an abandoned second album. They at least played it live once in November 2007 in Japan. There are at least two unreleased Mirrors versions of this song. One lasts for 6:10 which sounds very rough and another one, tagged V1.0, which lasts for 14:05. This one contains most of the 2010 B-side song Of The Night And The Light And The Half Light from the German digital Ways To An End single plus some additional unreleased audio. Oddly enough, the band and label initially didn’t want to include this song on the album.

The song Lights And Offerings was recorded during their June 2010 album sessions, but was left off the album as it was deemed not good enough. As of March 2011, this re-recording is not properly mixed and remains unreleased.

A song called Dead Air was once slated to be included on the album, but was ultimately left off. A demo version ended up on their 2012 EP. It is unknown if other, more polished, versions exist.

2LP release

Cat. nbr.: Skint Records – BRASSIC063LP

Track listing:

Side A

  1. Fear Of Drowning
  2. Look At Me
  3. Into The Heart

Side B

  1. Write Through The Night
  2. Ways To An End
  3. Hide And Seek

Side C

  1. Visions Of You
  2. Somewhere Strange
  3. Perfectly Still

Side D

  1. Something On Your Mind
  2. Searching In The Wilderness
  3. Secrets

The LP vinyl edition was released on 3 May 2011. It comes in a full color gatefold sleeve with printed inner sleeves which contains lyrics and credits.

The two German CD bonus tracks have been added to this release on side C, tracks 7 and 9.

Here is a nice fully signed LP copy which the guys signed for me at the record label’s office in May 2011 and shipped to my home.

2LP test pressing

Cat. nbr.: Skint Records – none

Track listing:

Side A

  1. Fear Of Drowning
  2. Look At Me
  3. Into The Heart

Side B

  1. Write Through The Night
  2. Ways To An End
  3. Hide And Seek

Side C

  1. Visions Of You
  2. Somewhere Strange
  3. Perfectly Still

Side D

  1. Something On Your Mind
  2. Searching In The Wilderness
  3. Secrets

A white label test pressing exists of the 2LP edition. It does not contain any artwork and only comes in two plain inner protection sleeves.

Only three copies were ever made of this pressing. As of March 2024, two are located in Germany and one in Belgium.

CD release

Cat. nbr.: Skint Records – BRASSIC063

Track listing:

  1. Fear Of Drowning
  2. Look At Me
  3. Into The Heart
  4. Write Through The Night
  5. Ways To An End
  6. Hide And Seek
  7. Somewhere Strange
  8. Something On Your Mind
  9. Searching In The Wilderness
  10. Secrets

The CD edition lacks the band’s and album title’s names on the front artwork. Instead these are printed on a clear sticker which is affixed to the jewel case.

Withdrawn CD release

Cat. nbr.: Skint Records – BRASSIC063

Track listing:

  1. Fear Of Drowning
  2. Look At Me
  3. Into The Heart
  4. Write Through The Night
  5. Ways To An End
  6. Hide And Seek
  7. Somewhere Strange
  8. Something On Your Mind
  9. Searching In The Wilderness
  10. Secrets

A withdrawn CD version emerged on Discogs in 2022. It appears that the initial batch of CD’s contained a wrong mix for the album and was thus recalled. This wrong/rejected mix is the same mix that can be found on a Belgian full album promotional CDr and the five track album sampler. It is unknown when this initial batch was pressed and recalled, but latest before the promotional box sets were created as they contain the corrected version. The artwork used for the withdrawn edition is the same as the released edition. In order to identify the withdrawn edition, you need to look at the matrix number on the back of the disc:

  • BRASSIC063 01 for the withdrawn version
  • BRASSIC063V2 01 for the released version

German CD release

Cat. nbr.: [PIAS] Germany – 556.A012.020

Track listing:

  1. Fear Of Drowning
  2. Look At Me
  3. Into The Heart
  4. Write Through The Night
  5. Ways To An End
  6. Hide And Seek
  7. Somewhere Strange
  8. Something On Your Mind
  9. Searching In The Wilderness
  10. Secrets
  11. Visions Of You
  12. Perfectly Still

Germany had a unique CD release as it contains two bonus tracks being Visions Of You and Perfectly Still. Visions Of You remains unique to this, the 2LP and Greek 2CD releases, whereas Perfectly Still became the B-side on the 2011 single Look At Me.

Besides the two bonus tracks, the artwork is different as the front image has been cropped and it contains a larger clear sticker with quotes from a few reviews.

German StyleNite CD release

Cat. nbr.: [PIAS] Germany – 556.A012.020

Track listing:

  1. Fear Of Drowning
  2. Look At Me
  3. Into The Heart
  4. Write Through The Night
  5. Ways To An End
  6. Hide And Seek
  7. Somewhere Strange
  8. Something On Your Mind
  9. Searching In The Wilderness
  10. Secrets
  11. Visions Of You
  12. Perfectly Still

Mirrors performed at Michalsky’s StyleNite show on the 8th of July 2011 in Berlin, Germany. The album was given away for free that night in a special Mirrors bag. These CD’s are identical to the German CD with bonus tracks, apart from the non-transparant white sticker on the jewel case with record company contact info.

Most, if not all, bags contained multiple copies of the album. The above photo shows 18 sealed copies.

Greek 2CD release

Cat. nbr.: Undo – CDUN31

Track listing:

Disc 1

  1. Fear Of Drowning
  2. Look At Me
  3. Into The Heart
  4. Write Through The Night
  5. Ways To An End
  6. Hide And Seek
  7. Somewhere Strange
  8. Something On Your Mind
  9. Searching In The Wilderness
  10. Secrets

Disc 2

  1. Broken By Silence
  2. Toe The Line
  3. Lights And Offerings (Moshi Moshi Version)
  4. Falls By Another Name
  5. Perfectly Still
  6. Visions Of You
  7. Into The Heart (Richard X Radio Mix)
  8. Into The Heart (Greek Girls Are Not Easy Radio Mix)
  9. Secrets (Andy McCluskey Remix)

Greece had a unique 2CD edition which was released at the end of June 2011 after some delay. It comes as a tri-fold digipack in a black slipcase, though without a booklet so you miss out on the photos and lyrics.

It nicely collects all B-sides in random order, though misses the two 2009 A-sides. Track 8 on disc 2 is unique to this release. Tracks 7 and 8 on disc 2 might have been a candidate for the cancelled Into The Heart 12″ single.

A 7:19 Greek Girls Are Not Easy Extended Mix of Into The Heart was shared by the band as a free MP3 download in 2011.

Box set release

Cat. nbr.: Skint Records – none

Track listing:

CD Lights And Offerings

  1. Fear Of Drowning
  2. Look At Me
  3. Into The Heart
  4. Write Through The Night
  5. Ways To An End
  6. Hide And Seek
  7. Somewhere Strange
  8. Something On Your Mind
  9. Searching In The Wilderness
  10. Secrets

7″ Ways To An End

  1. Ways To An End
  2. Broken By Silence

7″ Hide And Seek

  1. Hide And Seek
  2. Toe The Line

7″ Into The Heart

  1. Into The Heart
  2. Falls By Another Name

7″ The White EP

  1. Look At Me (Laura Cantrell Cover Version)
  2. Lights And Offerings (Belbury Poly Mix)

To promote the album, a nice box set was made. A total of 300 copies were planned of which 60 were destroyed during the stenciling process. A bit over 200 went out to the press, leaving less than 40 unused. These few copies were later sold by Skint Records through their online shop as of 7 April 2011. In addition to the promotional contents (a press sheet and photo, the album on CD and 7″ records for Ways To An End and Hide And Seek), they added some Mirrors stickers and two more 7″ records being Into The Heart and The White EP. They also numbered each copy on the inside of the lid.

Digital release

Cat. nbr.: Skint Records – unknown

Track listing:

  1. Fear Of Drowning
  2. Look At Me
  3. Into The Heart
  4. Write Through The Night
  5. Ways To An End
  6. Hide And Seek
  7. Somewhere Strange
  8. Something On Your Mind
  9. Searching In The Wilderness
  10. Secrets

The whole album was released digitally through a variety of online stores and in a variety of formats.

Digital iTunes LP release

Cat. nbr.: Skint Records – unknown

Track listing:

  1. Fear Of Drowning
  2. Look At Me
  3. Into The Heart
  4. Write Through The Night
  5. Ways To An End
  6. Hide And Seek
  7. Somewhere Strange
  8. Something On Your Mind
  9. Searching In The Wilderness
  10. Secrets
  11. Fear Of Drowning (Live in Hamburg)
  12. Ways To An End (Live in Hamburg)
  13. Write Through The Night (Live in Hamburg)
  14. Into The Heart (Live in Hamburg)
  15. Searching In The Wilderness (Live in Hamburg)
  16. Hide And Seek (Live in Hamburg)
  17. Mirrors Lights And Offerings album commentary
  18. Ways To An End (video)
  19. Into The Heart (video)
  20. Hide And Seek (video)
  21. Fear Of Drowning (video)
  22. Look At Me (video)

The album was released in the iTunes LP format, which was a bundled album format featuring additional content in the form of interactive artwork, lyrics, videos and/or bonus audio.

In the case of this album, you would get an interactive Mirrors themed menu which gave you access to the album, the 2010 Hamburg performance, a 50 minutes long album commentary, five videos, lyrics, a photo gallery and a biography.

RecordStore.co.uk 2CD release

Cat. nbr.: Skint Records – BRASSIC063/MIRRORS004

Track listing:

Disc 1

  1. Fear Of Drowning
  2. Look At Me
  3. Into The Heart
  4. Write Through The Night
  5. Ways To An End
  6. Hide And Seek
  7. Somewhere Strange
  8. Something On Your Mind
  9. Searching In The Wilderness
  10. Secrets

Disc 2

  1. Stock, Hausen And Walkman – Belly Up
  2. Tangerine Dream – No Man’s Land
  3. White Magic – The Light
  4. John cage and Sylvano Bussotti – In A Landscape (Solo Piano)
  5. The Lady Blacktronika – Luv Hate Us
  6. Matias Aguuayo – Lineas
  7. Pier Bucci – Ã=ternelle (Original Mix)
  8. Young Marble Giants – N.I.T.A.
  9. Electronic Noise Controller – Gate Rods
  10. Keith Fullerton Whitman – 2nd Early Monolith
  11. Sun City Girls – This Is My Name

Online record store RecordStore.co.uk had a unique bundle for sale which featured a mixtape on a bonus CD. This bonus CD was housed in a custom made die-cut cardboard sleeve.

To top it off, the disc of the main album was signed by the whole band.

Rough Trade 2CD release

Cat. nbr.: Skint Records – BRASSIC063/MIRRORS005

Track listing:

Disc 1

  1. Fear Of Drowning
  2. Look At Me
  3. Into The Heart
  4. Write Through The Night
  5. Ways To An End
  6. Hide And Seek
  7. Somewhere Strange
  8. Something On Your Mind
  9. Searching In The Wilderness
  10. Secrets

Disc 2

  1. Daniel Figgis – Alison Creaking
  2. Trans Am – Futureworld
  3. Wolfgang Voigt – Geduld (DJ Koze Mix)
  4. Seth Troxler – Aphrika (Original Mix)
  5. Bruno Pronsato – Open Your Eyes
  6. TRIM – The Low-Dan
  7. The Chap – I Saw Them
  8. Herbert – Movie Star
  9. The Revolutionaries – Kunta Kinte Version One
  10. Tim “Love” Lee – Sombre Hombre
  11. Asa-Chang and Junray – Hana

UK record store Rough Trade also had a unique bundle for sale which featured a different mixtape on a bonus CD. This bonus CD was housed in the same custom made die-cut cardboard sleeve.

Skint Records 2CD release

Cat. nbr.: Skint Records – BRASSIC063/MIRRORS006

Track listing:

Disc 1

  1. Fear Of Drowning
  2. Look At Me
  3. Into The Heart
  4. Write Through The Night
  5. Ways To An End
  6. Hide And Seek
  7. Somewhere Strange
  8. Something On Your Mind
  9. Searching In The Wilderness
  10. Secrets

Disc 2

  1. Write Through The Night (Rudi Zygadlo Remix)
  2. Hide And Seek (Leo Zero Remix)
  3. Lights And Offerings (Belbury Poly Mix)
  4. Hide And Seek (Kwes Rework)
  5. Into The Heart (Jonathan Kreinik Mix)
  6. Write Through The Night (Leo Zero Club Mix)
  7. Hide And Seek (Liv Spencer (House of House) Remix)
  8. Into The Heart (AlunaGeorge Remix)
  9. Secrets (Andy McCluskey Remix)
  10. Look At Me (Laura Cantrell Cover Version)

Skint Records, the label who signed Mirrors for one album, offered another bonus CD, but only as a pre-order bonus. It again came in the same die-cut cardboard sleeve.

This is arguably the best of the three bonus CD’s, as it contains Mirrors music, though in a remixed form.

Wired Masters reference CD

Cat. nbr.: Skint Records – none

Track listing:

  1. Fear Of Drowning
  2. Look At Me
  3. Into The Heart
  4. Write Through The Night
  5. Ways To An End
  6. Somewhere Strange
  7. Hide And Seek
  8. Something On Your Mind
  9. Searching In The Wilderness
  10. Secrets

This is a reference CD, made on the 29th of August 2010, for in-house purposes only. It comes in a plastic sleeve with a printed insert.

The track listing is nearly identical when compared to the released album. Tracks 6 and 7 swapped places.

The mixes and mastering are different when compared to the released album. These mixes can also be found on an album sampler, a Belgian promotional CDr and the aforementioned withdrawn CD.

Most notable differences between this CD and the released version are:

  • Look At Me has a slightly longer intro
  • Something On Your Mind has a full (faded) clean ending
  • Searching In The Wilderness has a clean intro without the prelude, meaning the 17 second prelude is missing completely on this release

Note that the Belgian promotional CDr and withdrawn CD only feature the alternate Look At Me version. The other two are unique to this reference CD and the album sampler.

Wired Masters reference CD #2

Cat. nbr.: Skint Records – none

Track listing:

  1. Fear Of Drowning
  2. Look At Me
  3. Into The Heart
  4. Write Through The Night
  5. Ways To An End
  6. Secrets
  7. Something On Your Mind
  8. Searching In The Wilderness
  9. Hide And Seek
  10. Somewhere Strange

This is a second reference CD, again made on the 29th of August 2010, for in-house purposes only. It comes in a plastic sleeve with a printed insert.

This one has an alternate running order. Tracks 6-10 all swapped places. It gives an interesting insight on their ideas at the time. I personally think that this order does not flow that well when compared to the released version.

The mixes and mastering are again slightly different when compared to the released album, just as the previous reference CD.

Album Sampler CD release

Cat. nbr.: Skint Records – none

Track listing:

  1. Hide And Seek
  2. Look At Me
  3. Searching In The Wilderness
  4. Something On Your Mind
  5. Write Through The Night

A five track album sampler was released in September 2010. This was the first promotional release for the upcoming album. It is interesting to see that the imagery was already known at that time (the album wasn’t released until five months later).

It contains alternate mixes which were created on or before the 29th of August 2010. Most notable differences between this CD and the released version are:

  • Look At Me has a slightly longer intro
  • Something On Your Mind has a full (faded) clean ending
  • Searching In The Wilderness has a clean intro without the 17 second prelude

These five alternate mixes can also be found on the aforementioned withdrawn CD edition, apart from the clean ending and intro on Something On Your Mind and Searching In The Wilderness.

Belgian promotional CD release

Cat. nbr.: N.E.W.S. – none

Track listing:

  1. Fear Of Drowning
  2. Look At Me
  3. Into The Heart
  4. Write Through The Night
  5. Ways To An End
  6. Hide And Seek
  7. Somewhere Strange
  8. Something On Your Mind
  9. Searching In The Wilderness
  10. Secrets

A Belgian promotional CDr exists, which was released by N.E.W.S., featuring the mixes from August 2010 which can also be found on the aforementioned reference CD‘s and album sampler. There are however some minor differences when compared to August 2010 reference CD’s:

  • There is a cross-fade between Fear Of Drowning and Look At Me
  • Something On Your Mind has the 17 second prelude before Searching In The Wilderness stuck at the end

These exact same mixes and track indexing can also be found on the withdrawn CD version.

Promotional box set release

Cat. nbr.: Skint Records – none

Track listing:

CD Lights And Offerings

  1. Fear Of Drowning
  2. Look At Me
  3. Into The Heart
  4. Write Through The Night
  5. Ways To An End
  6. Hide And Seek
  7. Somewhere Strange
  8. Something On Your Mind
  9. Searching In The Wilderness
  10. Secrets

7″ Ways To An End

  1. Ways To An End
  2. Broken By Silence

7″ Hide And Seek

  1. Hide And Seek
  2. Toe The Line

To promote the album, a nice box set was made. A total of 300 copies were planned of which 60 were destroyed during the stenciling process. 200 went out to the press, leaving 40 unused which were later sold by Skint Records through their online shop.

The box contained a press release, a nice glossy photo, the full (corrected) album on CD and 7″ records for Ways To An End and Hide And Seek).

The CD has a promotional sticker on the back of the jewel case.

Promotional CD release

Cat. nbr.: Skint Records – BRASSIC063

Track listing:

  1. Fear Of Drowning
  2. Look At Me
  3. Into The Heart
  4. Write Through The Night
  5. Ways To An End
  6. Hide And Seek
  7. Somewhere Strange
  8. Something On Your Mind
  9. Searching In The Wilderness
  10. Secrets

A promotional CD, probably for the UK, exists which comes in a custom made die-cut card sleeve featuring at least one sticker on the back, containing the album’s track listing.

Even though the CD is the standard commercial disc, the back of the sleeve warns the recipient of the promo that each disc has a unique watermark to prevent unauthorized distribution.

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