Staff Reviews

Memory Tapes - Grace/Confusion

Review by Paul Stephen Gettings

While the composition of Grace/Confusion may be a little scattershot for some, Memory Tapes succeeds in making this a rewarding and distinctive listen, as well as recalling some old tricks that were sadly lacking in recent efforts.»

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the essence of dayve hawk's music as memory tapes is the exploration of dance music as a medium more experimental than pop melodies and programmed beats. with his third album, 'grace / confusion', hawk builds on this mission to craft his most ambitious album to date. with six tracks clocking in at over 39 minutes, 'grace / confusion' is a rewarding change of pace for memory tapes, the length freeing hawk to abandon dance music tropes and weave together songs from fragmented hooks, snatches of melodies and bombasts of instrumentals. 'discarding any ideas about genre, format or even song structure didn't feel like a liberation though, more like a maze to get lost in,' hawk says. out of this confusion came memory tapes' most inventive tracks to date, from the melancholy love story of 'sheila,' told over alternating suites of dark synths and distorted guitars, to the dramatic coda of 'neighborhood watch.' lush production adds a dimension of depth to 'grace / confusion's comprehensive sound, drawing from space rock and classic electro in its experimental rendering of pop music.
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