album of the week: 12.3

Memory Tapes
Grace/Confusion
(2012)

why you'll love it:  Lots of captivating grooves, like if Ratatat was a dream pop band

why you'll hate it:  Too much downtime in songs, lacks the tightness and urgency of pervious works

If you need a smooth chillax album to keep you mind of holiday stress, just pump Memory Tapes straight into your bloodstream.  This third release from the Jersey/PA area indie-trance artist goes down a slightly different path than previous albums.  Grace/Confusion stays true to the title by being both his most euphoric and ambient release yet; but at random times, will with these tense stinging synth-splosions.  

At quiet moments, the songs are foggy and abstract.  Almost coma-like.  Then out of nowhere, almost in every song, come these sharp blows.  It's like a war raging on inside your own subconscious.  Although the whole thing is a bit too vague to get a real grip of what the point of it all is.  The vocals are buried in the mix, and what can be made out don't reveal a whole lot.  The "explosion" parts I refer to are still in line with the kind of groove Memory Tapes has.  They aren't abrasive at all, just chaotic by comparison.

I like that I am able to discern every Memory Tapes album easily.  The toolset and pace is usually the same, but the mood on each album is very different.  It takes a lot of skill to have such control of subtleties.  This is still a very easy on the ears experience.  I like the sounds it makes.  There are a lot of crazy effects, but none that are abrasive and distracting.  It's good background music.  I think it has a lot more ambition and color than last year's release, Player Piano.

I wish it didn't feel as aloof though.  The downtime ambient parts don't have anything interesting going on in them.  It's easy to drift away while this album is on, only to be brought back when a song kicks in.  Then you are left going "woah, what - is this the same song?  Oh hey it isn't."  I think all of the songs here could have been tightened up to be a minute shorter.  Then again, the aimless wandering could be the whole brilliant point of this thing.  Worth a listen on a long drive.