Remember Remember – Remember Remember

Despite being on Rock Action, you can’t really describe Remember Remember as ‘post-rock’, it just doesn’t fit. Typical received wisdom dictates that if you are an instrumental band that uses guitars, bass and drums then you must play post-rock, and if you play post-rock then you must use the quiet-loud-quiet-loud rule. There just isn’t much scope when there aren’t any vocals, right? Well, as this self-titled debut shows, you’d be dead wrong to think that. Graeme Ronald is the sole member of Remember Remember and whilst he does use guitars, bass and drums, he also makes use of piano, violins, woodwinds, glockenspiel, and shows a flare for found sound, which is to say bubblewrap, a hole-punch, a sellotape dispenser and a few other similar things, which he incorporates into the music.There are layers and layers of guitars throughout this album, often as much as 3 or 4 at any one time, weaving in and around eachother playing clean toned riffs, as on ‘Fountain’ or ‘Imagining Things (II)’, and there are reverby ones playing a strung out tone as on ‘The Dancing’, and there are gauzy echoing ones as found on ‘The Swimming’, and there is a Brian Eno treated psychedelic lap steel sort of sound on ‘Genie (For Amaya)’, and a lot of the time all of those styles can be found in the same track. This amount would threaten monotony if it were not for the use of woodwinds, which carry a lot of the melody, as on ‘Mountain’, ‘Imagining Things (I)’, or the violins, glockenspiel and piano which add a different tone to the whole album. This tone is mannered and pastoral, evoking the 19th century in some respects, ‘Genie (For Amaya)’ has a piano playing a bittersweet and airy piece, and later violins playing in beautiful swirls. Yet, again, there are elements which complement the basic sound, this time the found sound and field recordings add pleasing intricate parts, carbonated water being poured into a glass and rain falling can be heard in ‘The Swimming’, and hand claps are incorporated in both ‘The Dancing’ and ‘Up In A Blue Light’. The final thing to be found here is the tendency to create a pulsing trance, which shows an obvious influence from such composers as Steve Reich and Phillip Glass, violins sawing, repeating notes on guitars or piano or glockenspiel or clarinet, a hypnotic exploration of rhythm.These ingredients create a caressing, slow style that flirts with Minimalism, the album is kept fresh by using post-rock elements in different and interesting ways and melding light melodies into it all. Indeed, these melodies are not the typically drenched statements made by other instrumental bands, there are no crashing grand statements, and that is no big loss at all. These busy compositions make a perfect headphone experience, the slowly evolving songs reward close listening, offering up details and insights into the nuts and bolts which only enhances the pleasure of listening to the album. 75%Remember Remember on MySpace