Seek Magic. Really? That sounds like the album title for a group of yoga instructors from Topanga Canyon unveiling their latest opus involving theremin, timpani, and really sweet vibes, bro. But it’s perversely appropriate. Memory Tapes’ implicit intent is to mine magic from the mundane, mixing sounds you faintly remember from faded childhood nostalgia with the chill-out meme that washed over the blogs this summer.
The Wire branded Pocahaunted and a batch of esoteric bands I’ve never heard of as hypnagogic pop–a term too pretentious for even me to use. Yet it’s perhaps most fitting for Dayve Hawk, whose music occupies a bleary and beatific space between sleep and sentience. Or maybe the fitful insomniac sleeplessness that resembles mild psychedelia, when your mind stops thinking and operates strictly off instinct.
In his Pitchfork review, Ian Cohen scrutinizes the details and contextualizes the band in a way that would take two days for me to properly assess. And even then, I wouldn’t draw connections between Kanye, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Daft Punk. Well played. I’m not sure how Hawk can replicate this–this sounds like the dying embers of summer, a drained moat of squandered time, lost love, and few regrets. Magic. Ok, fine.
Download:
MP3: Memory Tapes-”Green Knight”
MP3: Memory Tapes-”Plain Material”
MP3: Memory Tapes-”Bicycle”
MP3: Memory Tapes-”Treeship” (Left-Click)
7 comments
Thomas says:
October 9, 2009 at 2:42 pm (UTC -7)
i love the album cover.
nicksweep says:
October 9, 2009 at 6:27 pm (UTC -7)
it’s funny this “hypnagogic pop” thing.
james ferraro & emeralds seem to make completely different music to the likes of pocahaunted and these guys (indeed JF and emeralds are quite different to each other, too)… so i’m not really sure what they were trying to do with that Wire article. it’s more like the writer was trying to capture a moment in time rather than an actual scene… these bands don’t share a similar locale, or style… at a stretch you could say they have the same “vibe” but that’s about it.
personally i just think the last few yeahs have seen a rise in the popularity of the psychedelic and surreal, in most forms of media. music especially… but you can see it in TV a lot as well…
anyways… most of the bands mentioned in said Wire article seem to be pretty good. i would give this stuff a proper go ie., buy the album. probably. i do like f scott fitzgerald.
nicksweep says:
October 9, 2009 at 6:28 pm (UTC -7)
dang.
“last few yeahs” = “last few years.”
Jordan says:
October 10, 2009 at 7:42 pm (UTC -7)
Lolz that in making all those perfunctory high art/low art comparisons he missed that the line he quoted is a pretty famous line from ‘Waiting For Godot.’ to wit: http://www.amazon.com/Cant-Go-Ill-Samuel-Beckett/dp/0802132871
Jordan says:
October 10, 2009 at 7:47 pm (UTC -7)
oops that was just sloppy reading on my part. Never mind.
danielle says:
October 15, 2009 at 10:22 am (UTC -7)
haha! im from topanga canyon. i think Seek Magic might be already taken by some rock/crystal shop.
Passion of the Weiss says:
October 15, 2009 at 12:08 pm (UTC -7)
I’m jealous. I wish I was from Topanga Canyon.