by Holly Whitaker
MEMORIALS don’t mind being referred to as “Stereolab’s evil twin,” but that influential band — who MEMORIALS happen to be opening for at Miami Beach Bandshell on September 16 — is far from their only touchstone. MEMORIALS are an elegant mix of their tour mate’s artful pop, Autolux’s drum momentum and Sweet Trip’s glitchiness, with a touch of Being Dead’s playfulness and Yo La Tengo’s contemplation. So, yes, it’s a concert match made in record shop heaven.
Before they released their debut album, 2024’s Memorial Waterslides, the U.K. duo of Verity Susman from Electrelane and Matthew Simms from It Hugs Back and Wire composed two film soundtracks and, last year, a Paris art museum commission. For Memorial Waterslides, they’ve adapted their scoring sensibilities to songcraft; the result is a magical summit of jazz, electronic and psychedelic rock.
The album opens with “Acceptable Experience” channeling the airy vocals and vintage organ vibes that Stereolab perfected with ‘60s time machine classics such as Percolator. The danceable dreamy pop of “Lamplighter” evokes krautrock and MGMT while the audio collage of “Memorial Waterslide II” is one The Avalanches would envy. (In concert, Susman and Simms perform without extra backing musicians, alternating as needed between keyboards, mics, drums, guitars, handbells and a reel-to-reel tape machine.)
The back half of the album is moodier, less danceable, but absorbing. The nine-minute penultimate track, “I Have Been Alive,” is a tense reflection of everything MEMORIALS can sound like, each element falling into the mix like Alice tumbling into Wonderland. Susman and Simms send you off with “The Politics of Whatever,” a heavenly melancholic duet, somehow combining shades of The Beatles’ “Here, There, and Everywhere” with a fairy’s electrified ballroom dance.
The album’s never-ending riffs, drones, sound effects, and hypnotic melodies all cohere under a larger rhythmic sense, everything remaining consistently fresh and unpredictable within a wide-angled cinematic style of songwriting. Memorial Waterslides is all that, and a delightful showcase of confected noise and grooves for people whose favorite instruments are dial-up internet and corroded analog synthesizers.
MEMORIALS open for Stereolab 7pm Tuesday, September 16 at Miami Beach Bandshell. memorialsmusic.bandcamp.com ~ Erik Kvarnberg
