Memory Tapes - 'Seek Magic' (Something In Construction) Released 16/11/09

Hastily bandied around in a downloadable implosion of all-inclusive pop-marked merriment the term electro has of late become something of a sweeping and at times meaningless byword used at will and without fear of consequence. So much so, it’s easy to forget that the ‘E’ word, strictly speaking, is actually eleven letters long.

A cynical mouthful maybe but some are taking far more advantage of this populist revival than the banal championing of Topshop clad T4 presenters would otherwise have you believe; a case in point being New Jersey resident Memory Tapes, aka Memory Cassette, aka Weird Tapes, aka 26 year old Dayve Hawke.

Having developed his eleven letter craft over a period of EP spanning years his debut album ‘Seek Magic’, at once upbeat and lethargically inspiring, is an album that pays reverence to the past while looking to the future by existing in the present; essentially, intelligent dance music with solid beginning, middle and end structures that create rather than borrow from nostalgic aspirations.

Announcing the eight-track portfolio with the non-committal appeal of a layered Balearic sunrise, ‘Swimming Field’ hints at but sufficiently camouflages the ubiquitous euphoria that permeates the insatiable appetites of ‘Bicycle’ and ‘Green Knight’, an appetite fuelled by an unlikely vocal pitch and vocoded playfulness.

It’s almost surprising that this crossover offering is one loosely labelled as being bedroom crafted, the half expected but not compulsory blips and bleeps of ‘Pink Stones’ extending beyond a stock of clunky Sega fuelled memories and into the lavish potential of haute couture aesthetics, while the deceptive simplicity of a guitar reliant ‘Plain Material’ belies a consistently intricate and ever impressive slight of hand.

Subtly forceful and progressively evolving ‘Stop Talking’ resists territorial boundaries, its enviable strut bypassing the calls of a peacocking dance floor in order to enter the next phase of its confident shape shifting existence through the swagger of ‘Graphics’.

But most impressive of all perhaps is a lack of runaway ego, leaving Memory Tapes’ manipulative ability intact and firmly grounded as ‘Run Out’ nods once more to the humble beginnings with which ‘Seek Magic’ started proving once again that there’s far more to the ‘E’ word than seven letters. Brilliant.