S U R VI V E - RR7349 singles

The band behind the soundtrack to Netflix 'Stranger Things' is releasing a new album on Sept 30th 2016, and have some amazing dark, driving synthy tracks available for listening.






I'll be certain to get their album once it's available on Bandcamp, but I'm hoping for a release of that amazing looking cover art too.



Music that reminds me of the dreams my childhood self had of the distant future: how the past remembers the future has been a preoccupation of mine artistically. I'm happy to see series like Stranger Things give a musical platform to modern acts like SURVIVE for that reason.

Check out the io9 article for more information about their upcoming (US) tour.

A previous 2012 album by the band in full, S U R V I V E - S U R V I V E:

FUTURE SHOCK: Orson Wells brings us Beyond the Black Rainbow

I had the pleasure of watching the late Orson Wells narrate/star in FUTURE SHOCK, a mid-1970s schlocky documentary about how too much change too quickly could destroy (western) society.

I remember the book, and it's interesting cover on my grandfather's book shelf when I was a child. He was an avid reader of Vonnegut and JFK assassination theories - disseminated in the pre-digital age as small novelette-sized printed books. The original film (which was originally created for screening at the Cannes Film festival) feels like something my grandfather would have enjoyed:



Aside from the synthy music, what struck me about the documentary was how seriously it took it self. "We're faced with so many choices, so many decisions, and we have to make them so quickly. None of us can escape the pressures. That's what future shock is all about." Orson Wells reads this dramatically over '70s disco montage music showing various things people can purchase, including 8-track tapes. While incredibly dated, that's part of the charm of this 'documentary'. From a modern point of view, it documents a future that never came to pass - at least not in the form predicted.
Consistently, FUTURE SHOCK (perhaps intentionally), blended 'modern day' late '60s/ early '70s footage into what it predicted will be the future.  At times, I couldn't tell if they were showing an interview with a person from the '70s about science, pharmacology, hitch hiking or polyamorous living, - or if those sections were intended to be set in some distopian 'future'. The aim seemed to gleefully revel at change, and simultaneously communicate how TERRIFYING this change was, and that you shouldn't like it.

I decided to watch BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW afterwards: it's a modern film set and styled as occurring in 1983 which deals with similar issues. Playing the ending of FUTURE SHOCK over top of this films' cassette tape-style introduction created a nice bridge - almost as if FUTURE SHOCK was a spiritual prequel to Panos Cosmatos film:



The intro 'Promotional' video above for the Arboria Institute above is the beginning to BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW. This film is fictionally set in the same time frame as FUTURE SHOCK, and it provides an interesting segway: it posits that the disposable, futuristic society Wells drones about actually comes to pass in the form of Huxley's Brave New World -- an assembly line society where everyone is medicated by a societal elite. People struggle to cope in this dark, 'future shocked' world, and turn instead to 'benign pharmacology, sensory therapy, and energy sculpting, " to find "contentment and inner peace". 

Be sure to check out the article about FUTURE SHOCK at DangerousMinds.net which goes into some interesting detail about the production and the ideas within.

Tame Impala - Lonerism

Recollections of Memory Tapes - Fallout

Via: Carpark Records writeup:

With the foundation of his musical life crumbling, Dayve Hawk was struggling to maintain a relationship with his project Memory Tapes. But through the difficulties, Hawk managed to keep this vital outlet going. Fallout / House On Fire, the new two-song digital single from Memory Tapes, exhibits Hawk’s still strong songwriting talents and an alternative way of working. After the artist’s last LP, Grace/Confusion, he saw several professional and personal relationships end, all in the space of a few months.

At this point, most of the structure built around the band since the first record,Seek Magic, had disintegrated.  The title of “Fallout” seems to suggest Memory Tapes’ situation around this time. The song itself sounds like an early meeting between post-punk and synth-pop, before anyone could polish out the feeling. The somewhat downcast mood of the music is reflected in the vocals, with Hawk singing, “all I want/ to be there, too.”

[...]

The tracks are completely live/hardware based, with no computer manipulation on the vocals. Considering the raw capture of these songs, they feel a little more like intimate demos than part of a traditional single. “I feel like it’s important to just do something and get it out,” Hawk says. “I’m trying to transition out of my hyper-introverted life.” 

I met Dayve once after a small gig he played in Toronto some years ago. After the concert, he awkwardly scrawled his name (using a ballpoint pen) cock-eyed across my Seek Magic LP, and got away from fans as fast as possible. I felt badly for him that he couldn't enjoy the adoration from people who've enjoyed his work so much over the years. His performance live was fantastic, but you could certainly see it was a struggle for him to reconcile being a musician in public with the introverted nature of his life. 

It's that intersection of introspection and the past that grants his music such a unique sound. Like his earlier side projects, Memory Tapes continues to trigger an emotional resonance for me with music keyed to specific times in my early childhood. In the case of "Fallout", it's the curious feeling I had on evenings spent alone in the early 90's, with half-heard music playing on a car radio outside. It also captures the odd wonder I felt while watching a taped copy of "E.T" in an empty house; the flicker of VHS scan lines on my family's old UHF-band television with a soft summer night breeze blowing though a window. Distant smells of a barbecue, and the sound of crickets outside: These are simple, but potent memories of a time that no longer exists - but I can relive them in a way though music.


I hadn't thought about these experiences for years, but Dayve Hawk's music brings them to the forefront of my memory. For that, I'm eternally grateful and hope he continues to make music in any form for years to come.

 

Update: Dayve released what sounds like a demo version of "Fallout" along with a few other new/unleased tracks in April:



I've done a quick cut/edit of the 1st track:

Memory Tapes - September

Stratford Ct. : Amicus Curiae 2014 Retrowave Compilation

The Stratford Ct. bandcamp page also provides a helpful listing of all the artists' SoundCloud pages.

These are some particularly nice tracks from this compilation:
Sazabio - Monki,
SHY WOŁVE - coincé à nouveau,
HOME- - Bohemian Grove,
DINOSAURUS REX x AZTC - Brassier,
and『Tora Tora』 - Skyline

Mirror Kisses - Kameron

Memory Tapes: Walk Me Home 1 & 2

Thanks to the magic of Soundcloud's notification system, I received word today of a new mixed set by Dayve Hawk of Memory Tapes. One of the first artists I actively followed online (from his time with Hail Social, to Weird / Memory Tapes) - he consistently creates excellent music. The Walk Me Home mixes in particular have a vintage, spooky vibe to them.

Walk Me Home 2 by Memory Tapes

Also,  Memory Tapes "Walk Me Home" mix [free download link], was created originally for the excellent ARAWA.fm back in 2009.

http://pitchfork.com/forkcast/13506-walk-me-home/

DJ Blayne Mixtape: Memory (2012)

Memory Mix (2012) by thisstuffiswonderful

DJ Blayne's : Memory 2012 (Mix Tape):
A mix of chillwave, electro-ambient, and electro-synthpop I find emotionally evocative.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD (Free MP3)

1. Aslan Osiris - When Our Moon Falls vs. Tycho - Ascension [DJ B Edit]
2. Apparat - Arcadia (Telefon Tel Aviv Remix)
3. Telefon Tel Aviv - The Birds [DJ B Edit]
4. M83 - I Guess I'm Floating
5. Kevin Shields - Goodbye (Lost In Translation OST)
6. Cool Angels - Don't Feel Like Holding On (Ft. Stef Hodapp) [DJ B edit]
7. Memory Tapes - Run Out
8. Telefon Tel Aviv - Helen of Troy
9. Gypsy & the Cat - Time to Wander (Joan of Arc Remix)
10. DIIV - Follow (Memory Tapes Remix)
11. Eight and a Half - When I was Twenty Nine
12. M83 - Slight Night Shiver
13. Tycho - A Walk

Mix also streaming on Mixcloud:

DJ Blayne - Memory 2012 Mix Tape by Djblayne on Mixcloud

If you like the artists included in this set, buy their music. Some tracks are already available for free (Soundcloud) or for purchase (via Bandcamp). Mixtape created using Adobe Soundbooth and Premier.

-DJ Blayne 
[ blaynescott@gmail.com ]
http://events.dark-ware.org

Chillwave: Weird Tapes

The only music artist online that I'll consistently check for newly posted tracks is "Weird Tapes", and the his side project, "Memory Cassette".

As one blogger put it:

Feel like I might call it 'chill wave' music in the future. Feels like 'chill wave' is dominated by 'thick/chill synths' while conceptual core is still trying to 'use real instruments/sound like it was recorded in nature.' Feel like chillwave is supposed to sound like something that was playing in the background of 'an old VHS cassette that u found in ur attic from the late 80s/early 90s.'

Is it possible to be nostalgic for memories that aren't your own? This occurred to me while listening to music associated with 'chillwave' artists like Memory Tapes recently.

Something about this artist (and perhaps the genre) strikes a chord in me. Listening to any tracks reminds me of memories I never had - a feeling that I've combined childhood perception with actual memories I had as a kid watching TV, or wandering around outside.

Listening to Weird Tapes/Memory Cassette/Memory Tapes as an adult bring about an intersection between the events of my childhood, and the mood/feelings I had during specific moments. It's hard to put into words, but I think that's why this music is such magic.

Also check out Weird Tapes earlier band, "Hail Social" - far more alt. rock, but you can see the beginnings of his style in many tracks.

http://weirdtapes.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/hailsocial

Be sure to dig through the Weird Tapes blog archive. 80% of his music is free to download, with the exception of some full EPs, which are available through iTunes, etc.

A good place to start is with a mixtape of his called "Walk me home". It's a combination of a few of his tracks, an expertly mixed .mp3 of your memories. :)

Update: I came across an interesting interview with the artist (Dayve Hawk) at Sterogum.