A couple of years ago, I wrote about Max Richter's brilliant Infra on this blog. At the time it stood alone in my record collection; two sides of incredible neo-classical music surrounded by countless punk, post-rock and metal albums. However it represented the beginning of a journey of musical discovery I'm still on. Digging through the other albums Max Richter has released, finding the section in my record shop called "Neo-classical, experimental, noise and other" and converting friends has been very rewarding indeed.
One of the highlights is Memoryhouse, an album I'm very glad has recently been reissued on a lovely double white vinyl. Late in 2011 I found the cd of Memoryhouse in a second-hand shop in Soho and was pretty excited to hear it. I had no idea if it would be anything like Infra or whether I'd enjoy it at all, but my fears were unnecessary. I don't know if it's fair to call it an "album of songs" (any themes are less evident than they are on Infra) but it certainly works well in that sense; most of the songs stand well alone with a handful of notable highlights along the way. Listening to it as an album, some of the songs become more incidental and add to the overall flow. At 18 tracks, it's not a quick listen, but if I put it on my headphones at work it makes for a very enjoyable hour.
The highlights I mentioned before are spread pretty evenly throughout the record - the opener Europe, After the Rain, Sarajevo with its piercing vocals and violins, the more electronic Untitled (Figures) and the haunting Arbentia. However, the two most exciting songs for me are November and Last Days which are both hugely tense and overwhelming pieces of music. Those two songs sit perfectly between the worlds of classical music and post-rock, which is quite something.
The reissue was expensive but definitely worth it. The vinyl is particularly noisy but the crackles and pops really do add something here. Whilst electronic instruments are used and it's a very modern classical album, it already sounds timeless and all that surface noise adds to the idea that this LP could have been knocking for 60 years. I'm not sure why it's quite so noisy (it's only had one careful owner - me) but I like it.
Format: Double 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 18
Cost: £25 new
Bought: Truck Store, Oxford
When: 26/07/14
Colour: White
Etching: None
mp3s: Download
