“Genuinely stunning, impossible-to-pigeonhole The Trilogy Tapes debut for the hardest working man in showbiz, Will Memotone.
Both as a musician (and ANF customer), Bristolian Memotone is nonstop. His distinctive takes on low-lit jazz, homey folk and quirky electronica has found its way out via Sähkö, as O.G. Jigg or via his own Memorecs label, but really this is the one we’ve been waiting for. From the plush, moody opening tones it already feels like the work of an accomplished musician. Memotone’s expansive reconfigurations on the tried and tested stylistic parameters of jazz, exotica, folk and to some extent prog feel assured. He seems happy carving out his own pastoral, comfortably psychedelic imaginary land. The arrangements are detailed, eccentric yet uncluttered, like the woozy heartstring-tugging ‘Door To The Sky’ with its cosy woodland flute melody and shackling percussion, or the front-porch twang meets devotional Ghazal-like xylophone of Laughing Grass. These are elements that ordinarily wouldn’t / shouldn’t work together, but the rules are different here. It’s welcoming and the sort of music that invites you in – ‘Funny To Stay The Same’ has that snug microcosmic feel found in our fav Japanese indie groups Eddie Marcon, Tenniscoats, Go Hirano, etc. Whereas the familiar home-brewed worlds of Spillage Fete, Woo or Deux Filles feel closely related. But this is unmistakably its own thing, at the hands of someone who must absorb a lot of music and is comfortable putting pen to paper. One that’ll work itself into your daily life.”
