If Your Mirror Breaks

by The Ex

supported by

Erik Daas It’s hard to pick a favourite song, this is an incredible record you should listen to. Welcome to the music of The Ex, still standing, playing for more than 40 years and making brilliant songs. Favorite track: Monday Song.

ian1984 Bland white boy sits and watches
Angry red boy stands and screams
The pink is in between

willem minderhout An other gem. I was lucky to see them perform in Rotown Rotterdam.

youtu.be/dnih54XK6Ec?si=DLINWskwqoe4xdkM

more...

more...

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

Download available in 16-bit/44.1kHz.

€8 EUR or more

1.	Beat Beat Drums 05:12	buy track
2.	Monday Song 05:40	buy track
3.	The Evidence (LP Version) 02:59	buy track
4.	Spider And Fly 05:34	buy track
5.	Circuit Breaker 05:37	buy track
6.	Wheel 05:05	buy track
7.	The Loss 03:55	buy track
8.	In The Rain 02:37	buy track
9.	The Apartment Block 06:03	buy track
10.	Great! (LP Version) 04:27	buy track

about

In true ‘Ex fashion’, If Your Mirror Breaks picks up where 27 Passports left off, and erupts like a musical short story collection, a ten-part series of surrealist daydreams, calls to action, ominous warnings and bursts of vitality tapped into the pulse of time. What time could be more appropriate to release this album in, as the current one? Arnold de Boer, Katherina Bornefeld, Andy Moor and Terrie Hessels once again impress with their trademark urgency and creativity.
Starting from a staccato Walt Whitman poem from 1861 and wrapping things up with the unstoppable, joyful thrust of “Great!”, the new album by The Ex is equal parts exploration and determination, with wistful shades accentuating their live wire intensity, unpredictability and sheer determination. Yes, there are moments of doubt and insecurity (“reality is shifting / there is no escape”), of distress (“I get desperate / I feel the wide washing of death”), but time and again, perseverance wins. As Bornefeld sings so aptly in her beautiful contribution “Wheel”: “New life force unfolds for those who flow / with the song of their souls.”
De Boer has a striking way with images. Walls speak, spiders write and turning into an apartment block becomes a life goal. Imagination and language become a refuge, but also weapons in times of loss and division. When you’re not afraid to question yourself and realise, in James Baldwin’s words, that “You could be that person / Be that monster, be that cop”, you might find a way out of it. It’s the way we interact that defines us. If Your Mirror Breaks is an album that brims with passion and commitment, with three guitars, voice and drums ready to revitalize, or overthrow, the old formulas. It is rugged and fierce, connecting the dots between the swaying waltz of “Circuit Breaker” and the overflowing lava energy of “In The Rain”. Steve Albini, whom the album is dedicated to, would have approved.
With music (and words) as committed, poetic, exciting and imaginative as this, The Ex has made one for the ages. A work that reflects the conflicting ideas and moods of its time, while pushing forward, convinced there’s always a more viable alternative around the
corner. It’s a process that never loses its thrilling buzz.
- Guy Peters, Geraardsbergen, 2025.

--This ones for Steve--

credits

released April 4, 2025

Katherina Bornefeld - Drums, percussion, vocals
Arnold de Boer - Vocals, guitar
Andy Moor - Guitar
Terrie Hessels - Guitar
Recorded by Jan Schenk @ Schenkstudio, Amsterdam, Dec. 2, 3, 4, 2024 Mixed by The Ex @ Arnold’s Upstairs
Mastered by Bob Weston @ Chicago Mastering Service
Artwork & Lay-out: Emma Fischer
Cover painting: ‘Woeloem’ Hessels
Photos by Geert Vandepoele
Cut by Lex van Coeverden at The Vinyl Room
Pressed by Discomat bvba, Herk-de-Stad (B)
Thanks: Mila-merch & Luc-sound

license

subtotal
taxes calculated at checkout

about

The Ex Amsterdam, Netherlands

The Ex started playing in 1979. Using guitars, bass, drums and voice as their starting point The Ex have continued to musically explore undiscovered areas right up to the present day: collaborations with jazz musicians and an Iraqi-Kurdish band, Kamagurka, Tom Cora, Sonic Youth, Han Bennink, Jan Mulder, Shellac and Wolter Wierbos. In 2002 The Ex set up a lively musical exchange with Ethiopia. ... more

theex.nl

shows

Jan 21

The Black Lab

Wasquehal, France
May 20

The 100 Club

London, UK

contact / help

Contact The Ex

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like The Ex, you may also like:

Coriky
by Coriky

supported by 73 fans who also own “If Your Mirror Breaks”

last thing. it falls apart and puts itself back together. mycrowwaves
go to album
To All Trains
by Shellac

supported by 70 fans who also own “If Your Mirror Breaks”

Dirgey dirty and yet mathy and pristine. Steve left us on a high note. Mount_Mourn
go to album
This Stupid World
by Yo La Tengo

supported by 58 fans who also own “If Your Mirror Breaks”

ira kaplan is my dad rick
go to album
Slights Still Unspoken (Selected Recordings 1978-1979)
by Voigt/465

A compilation of rollicking cuts from this Australian post-punk band that plays like a hybrid of the Velvets and the Stooges. Bandcamp New & Notable Jun 3, 2017
go to album
Volar LA Set (Flat Worms, Tracy Bryant, Part Time/Drinking Flowers, Cosmonauts, Susan)
by Flat Worms

Collected tracks from five bands including Cosmonauts, Susan, and Flat Worms provides a look into the vibrant Los Angeles music scene. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 19, 2017
go to album
Living Isn't Easy
by Robocobra Quartet

featured on Bandcamp Radio Feb 7, 2023
go to album
HEY WHAT
by Low

supported by 55 fans who also own “If Your Mirror Breaks”

Matt Besser played a couple of these tracks on I4H years back. It just came back to me, so I grabbed the record! lradikal
go to album