Album Review: Memory Tapes - Grace/Confusion

Dayve Hawk, aka Memory Tapes, has never been one to chase the spotlight. He's commendably Luddite (avoiding mobile phones and TV) and this, together with his fixation with the 'retro' musical aesthetic that lies at the core of chillwave, provides him with a strange, unfocused identity. He's recorded under several stage names (mostly referencing 'memory' or 'cassettes') and his music, starting with 2009's Seek Magic, has a heavy-lidded dreamlike quality that belies his strengths as a songwriter.

Grace/Confusion continues Hawk's fascination with retro textures, but gone are the nostalgia and the sound bites of kicks skidding on basketball courts. There's a glossy sheen over everything, and the album rockets along and disappears in under 40 minutes. Considering two songs clock in together at around 15 minutes there's not much fat to chew on.

The songwriting is still strong. Sheila is a pulsing eight-minute deep house jam that builds up more energy than just about anything Hawk has done so far. Safety has a soft, rubbery, electro buoyancy that gets better the more you listen to it.

The album lacks cohesion though, and it never feels like it stretches too far to achieve its goals. The energy needed to make a memorable album this short is more than what's on display here. There's a lack of both visceral and intellectual fire that makes it seem like Dayve isn't trying anymore. This sucks because, technically, the music is more than passable. This feels like an old report card – 'If he only applied himself he could do great things…'