Player Piano
Album | Memory Tapes
Chillwaver branches out but loses emotional impact.
When Memory Tapes first hit the scene with the single "Bicycle," the dreamy electro-synth project was quickly pigeonholed as the newest addition to the blossoming chillwave movement alongside Neon Indian and Toro y Moi. With second album Player Piano, singer-songwriter Dayve Hawk appears to be making an effort to distinguish himself from his contemporaries. Where 2009's Seek Magic was permeated throughout with the blurry swell of nostalgia characteristic of chillwave, Player Piano drops the sonic cohesiveness in favor of an eclectic collection of musically-diverse tracks. The overall sound is still steeped in a lo-fi haze and cut with loops that make you want to dance, if only in a shuffling stupor, but the emotional resonance and wistfulness that makes chillwave so Washed Out is distinctly absent. Cheery titles like "Sun Hits" wax pop without any of the regret that salted Hawk's previous work. "Fell Thru Ice," on the other hand, plunges in the opposite direction: the combination of rich yet mournful instrumentation and vinegar synths would make even Conor Oberst seem like a genuinely happy guy.
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