Hello my fine readers! I'm sorry that I have been missing lately; I got completely sidetracked by life and everything it holds. Of course, by life I mean work.
This is also I mild hyperbole, since I have actually been quite busy. Some I can't talk about (because it involves things in progress), and other things are mildly boring to people who don't like things (I won two of four Magic the Gathering rounds the other night).
Let's get the gaming news out of the way:
I have been playing a bit of everything lately: Kerbal Space Program, Papers, Please, and Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. All have been great fun. All have made me late for work at least once. Overall, I would recommend any of these to people who like time sink games. Especially Papers, Please, which has you working a boarder in 1984 U.S.S.R. It starts to get brutally depressing when you realize that all of what you are doing would have actually happened, and still does in some capacity or another today.
There is a very good reason for my silence: I was waiting for something amazing to fall into my lap. Thanks to a couple of trips down to Orange Monkey, I think I finally have something to talk about.
Memoryhouse :: The Slideshow Effect
(2012 Sub Pop Records)
I first heard of Memoryhouse about two or three years ago. A girl I was seeing at the time told me about how this couple from her school took off for six months or so and came back with a massive european following. I looked them up and could only find a listing for the song Lately. The ideas behind the song and the sparse minimalism of the instrumentation stuck a fine chord with me. For some reason or another, I never did follow up research to find out if and when the album would come out. That song has shown up on many of my playlists and I have always been curious about what they would do next.
I was doing a second run at Orange Monkey last week and I came across the newest Memoryhouse album by accident. I actually found it in a compilation pile between a sixties funk comp and a hard-core punk comp. I picked it and a copy of Four by Bloc Party and ran home to put it on a stack with the other few albums I still had to get through. I would like to report that the music is actually prettier than the art work. This two piece has this ability to sound positively haunting in the best way. The better tracks are definitely the ones with the faster tempo, but I can't really say that there is a bad song on the album.
The one thing I could say to the detriment of the album is that it has little range. I get that it is an element of dream-pop, but the lack of dynamics leaves me feeling like I missed something. I can't even say that either side drags, but side A did little to hold my strict attention. The one crecendo happens on Old Haunts actually startled me from reading because it felt so unexpected. At the same time, it was a beautiful turn to end the album on.
Overall, I would highly recommend this album. If you are already a huge dream-pop fan, maybe give it a good stream before jumping all over it. If you are new to the scene, Memoryhouse is a great place to start.
October is looking like it is going to be a bad-ass music release month! Brendan Canning, Basia Bulate, Deltron 30303, Moby, Minus The Bear, The Seas... So many more.
I will not be updating next week for sure, though. I will be in Iceland between the 2nd and the 7th. Let me know if you have been and know of any sweet record shops!
No comments:
Post a Comment