Review: Memory Tapes @ The Luminaire, Jan 20th.
Posted by: nick
Memory Tapes, Weird Tapes, Memory Cassette or Dayve Hawk. Whatever he chooses to call himself this man from New Jersey knows how to produce beautiful, intelligent dance music. That much we are sure of thanks to a number of mixtapes, remixes and then the joyous event that was Memory Tapes’ debut album ‘Seek Magic’, which was nothing short of a phenomenon in our books. But can he cut it live? Well that is what we’re here to see.
It’s with hopeful ears and open minds that we approach tonight’s gig in Kilburn’s Luminaire. The first thing to ponder is how the one man band that is Memory Tapes will take form on stage. Will it just be him? The answer is no - he has a rather capable live drummer to craft out those silky drum patterns. Aside from him we have a checked shirted, long haired and rather shy Dayve Hawk on guitar and vocals and a slinky looking Mac Book Pro laptop makes up the final member of the band this evening.
Dayve’s voice is subtle and accomplished this evening without ever being too grabbing but then it’s the music that really does the talking. Dayve’s simple but sonically dazzling guitar playing is more exciting to hear than it is to watch but it’s nonetheless great to see him churning out riffs on the likes of ‘Green Stones’ and ‘Graphics’ which is without doubt one of the songs of 2009.
Unfortunately being a Wednesday night there’s not much energy coming from the crowd and not much from the stage either with a shy Memory Tapes proclaiming timidly that this is only their third gig. The laptop however oozes confidence and when it drops the bass on the likes of the magnificent ‘Bicycle’, you can’t help but wish it was a Friday night and everyone was proper mad for it like!
All in all tonight is an entertaining gig but imagine the potential excitement if as well as the pretty Mac Book Pro we also had say a bass player, some keys and who knows maybe even a synth or two? Fill up that stage with a little energy and these tunes can’t fail to get the crowd eating out of the Hawk’s talons.
Memory Tapes have recently added a new date, Saturday March 13th at Cargo which we imagine will be the sort of party this music deserves.
mp3: Memory Tapes - Graphics (YSI)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
