Music

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‘I TRY TO MAKE THINGS VISUAL SO THE LISTENER WILL IMAGINE A SCENARIO’ Hitlist THE BEST ROCK, POP, JAZZ & FOLK*

✽✽ The Unwinding Hours Rising from the ashes of cult- but-now-defunct Aereogramme, Iain Cook and Craig B follow up last month’s album with the first headline show in their new guise, with support from Olympic Swimmers. Stereo, Glasgow, Fri 5 Mar. (Rock & Pop) ✽✽ Kate Nash Triggerer of a million chintzy dress-wearing wannabes, the London singer/piano player returns with album two next month. Will she still sing charming mockney ditties about ‘Pumpkin Soup’? One way to find out. Classic Grand, Glasgow, Sat 6 Mar. (Rock & Pop) ✽✽ Burnt Island BI launch beautiful mini-album, Music and Maths (see review, page 66) plus sets from Aidan Moffat, the Second Hand Marching Band, and gently- magnificent Icelandic singer/ songwriter Benni Hemm Hemm. Mono, Glasgow, Sun 7 Mar. (Rock & Pop) ✽✽ Grizzly Bear Handy if you missed them last year; the subtle, enigmatic and woozy sounds of Grizzly Bear return, supported by Bella Union- signed Beach House. Queens Hall, Edinburgh, Tue 9 Mar. (Rock & Pop) ✽✽ Homegame All music festivals should have an award- winning chippy, and postcard- perfect harbour within walking distance. Oh, and the line-up (Pantha du Prince, Four Tet, Silver Columns, FOUND, Remember Remember, and many more) at the Fence-run shindig looks quite awesome too. Various venues, Anstruther, Fife, Fri 12–Sun 14 Mar. (Rock & Pop) ✽✽ Mono Stunning Japanese post-rock, full of shoegazey reverb and drama, in the year the band celebrate their tenth anniversary. Oran Mor, Glasgow, Wed 17 Mar. (Rock & Pop)

Forget me not Hiding in the laundry room, Nicola Meighan drags Memory Tapes out to talk about New Jersey, Cocteau Twins, and his daughter’s no BS policy

S pike Jonze and Portishead may be beating his door down, but euphoric New Jersey melodist Dayve Hawk aka Memory Tapes isn’t home. ‘I’m in the laundry room of my in-laws,’ he shrugs. Presumably he’s mainlining dream-pop, post- punk and ambient works? Maybe plotting a remix like those he’s unleashed on the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Michael Jackson and Britney? ‘My daughter is running round singing behind me.’

Hawk is full of surprises. Witness his evolution from co-founder of Philadelphian rockers Hail Social to shoegaze-disco hero of the blogosphere. Or his quiet emission of ‘Bicycle’, a tropical electro ditty, that became one of last year’s best-loved tunes. Or his claim that it’s all kind of down to the Cocteau Twins. ‘I wrote a fan letter to [Cocteaus’ label] Bella Union when I was young, which grew into a correspondence and eventually a possible label-artist relationship,’ he remembers. ‘It fell through, but was the first kind of “making it” experience I had, and the beginning of my realisation that I have a very conflicted attitude about succeeding as a musician. I was as relieved as I was disappointed when it didn’t come together.’ Hawk may be indifferent to the fortunes of rock, but his indomitable arias have other plans: the nagging guitar nostalgia and synth-pop bombast of his ecstatic debut LP, Seek Magic, suggests that success will smoke him out. From sci-fi house (‘Stop Talking’) and electro-funk devotionals (‘Green Knight’) to gyroscopic laser-pop (‘Graphics’), Memory Tapes’ inaugural outing unifies his prior guises, Memory Cassette (gentle, pitch-shifting, cosmic rock) and

62 THE LIST 4–18 Mar 2010

Weird Tapes (sample-laden instrumental dance) into one cohesive if kaleidoscopic whole.

Memory Tapes’ roving pop landscapes signposted by the likes of Daft Punk, Aphex Twin and My Bloody Valentine are weirdly familiar, yet blatantly alien. (The latter, due in no small part to Hawk’s otherworldly vocals, which often had him pegged as a woman). Is his music impelled by a sense of location? Is Seek Magic as it seems to be a scrapbook of postcards from, (and maybe to), New Jersey? ‘I think, at least with this record, there was a lot of reference to the area I’m from, or at least the way it used to be,’ he agrees. ‘I try to make things visual so maybe the listener will imagine a place or scenario and then interpret that, rather than writing [extensive lyrics] to say something directly.’ (This might explain why ‘Swimming Field’ sounds like a love song to Grangemouth, birthplace of Cocteau Twins). ‘I like interpretation and ambiguity to be a part of things,’ he nods.

His strategy has bagged him many fans, including celluloid super-dude Spike Jonze, who championed MT on his blog, and Portishead’s Geoff Barrow, who was introduced to his debut 12”, ‘Bicycle’, by its remixers (and fellow fans) The Horrors. Despite his admirers, Hawk keeps quiet company, and remains a self-professed stay-at-home dad. Does his daughter help him hone his craft? ‘Kids are good at pointing out what a load of bullshit most things are’.

Stereo, Glasgow, Fri 12 Mar.