Memorials in session tonight. Recorded a few hours ago (October 15th) at Maid Vale Studios of the BBC for Marc Riley.
Memorials are former Electralane frontwoman Verity Susman and former Wire guitarist Matthew Simms who began as collaborators on two film projects, Tramps! and a documentary, Women Against The Bomb. Both projects became the basis for their debut album under the name Memorials and have been recording and gigging together ever since.
Memorials released their debut single ‘Acceptable Experience’ on Fire Records on 17th June this year. Fresh from a run of live dates across Australia earlier in the month, they are preparing for the release of their debut album due out later this year.
‘Acceptable Experience’ is built on two interlocked bass lines, dancing Farfisa riffs and layered tape loops. It describes a fate of unrealised plans, missed boats and dashed hopes as life changes course and spirals away beyond control: “Expect so much and receive so few returns, it’s a long running curse”.
Filled with the freedom of Sun Ra, powered by soulful, groove-based basslines, drawing on the tape experiments of Daphne Oram, Delia Derbyshire and The Radiophonic Workshop and threaded through with infectious melodies, MEMORIALS sit comfortably alongside Broadcast, Portishead, Arthur Russell, The Velvet Underground, Yo La Tengo and Tortoise.
As multi-instrumentalists they have honed their sound for live shows as a duo, juggling instruments in a set-up resembling that of a 5-piece band and live looping on a reel-to-reel tape machine.
Following their acclaimed 2023 soundtracks ‘Women Against The Bomb’ and ‘Tramps!’, a tour with Stereolab (they’ve been called “Stereolab’s evil twin”) and a new music commission from the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Verity Susman and Matthew Simms have arrived at MEMORIALS in reverse, escaping their cinematic day jobs to channel the spirit of free jazz, creating cosmic journeys into psychedelic rock, far-out folk and wild analogue electronics.
They originally met as part of the Too Pure label in the late 2000s when Verity’s Electrelane rubbed shoulders with Matthew’s It Hugs Back, his band prior to joining influential post-punk band Wire as guitarist.
‘Acceptable Experience’ is a most acceptable introduction to this very special duo.
So Sez Bandcamp.
Here they are, as they sounded earlier in the day from Marc Riley at BBC 6 Music.
