Artist : Michael Santos
Title : Memory Maker
Genre : Ambient
Year : 2010
Date : 05/2010
Bitrate : VBR kbps
Tracks : 07
Label : Home Normal
Source : CDDA
Encoder : Lame 3.97
Length : 45:07 min
Size : 67,3 MB
Tracklist:
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01.Alphaville 07:32
02.Cut Them Loose 10:31
03.Magenta Dayline 05:58
04.Let Go 01:55
05.Slowdance 11:00
06.Fauxity 00:57
07.Hollowing Out 07:14
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45:07 min
Michael Santos is a London-based artist
who has previously released on U-Cover,
Benbecula and the excellent French
label, Baskaru. I received the album
just as I was about to go out into the
Tokyo night for a bit of a photography
session, and by this point was on my
sixth demo of the day. I wasnÆt in any
great mood to listen to anything much by
this point, I thought IÆd give it a few
days before paying attention to it.
Well, turns out that just before I went
out that night, I whacked it onto my
ipod anyway, later realising that I had
actually deleted everything else on
there and was only left with the
unmastered version of what was to become
æMemory MakerÆ.
ItÆs a good thing too. As I was
wandering around the neon-lit streets of
Ikebukuro, the music felt like something
of a revelation. The use of static and
white-noise elements within drone works
is nothing new, yet what struck me was
his ability to integrate static and
noise under the skin of these deeply
melodic tones, imbuing the structures
with far more depth than I am used to in
the genre. Static is such a strong
element in his work, The Wire no less,
even described listening to MichaelÆs
music as æbeing drunk in a beehiveÆ. I
suppose itÆs not a bad assessment, so
long as you are a very happy, blissful
drunk and not too afraid of bees.
Yet apart from the sheer depth of the
work of course, is the fact that through
simple guitar and sine wave generation,
æMemory MakerÆ carves out something that
is at once micro-elemental and yet
really quite grandiose. From the first
slow clicks that open the album with
Alphaville, to the giant crescendo of
Slowdance, ending with the beautiful
thinly crusted melodies of Hollowing
Out, itÆs quite some journey. ItÆs about
as beautiful and intelligently made
ambient music as you are likely to find,
a kind of urban soundtrack if you will.
ItÆs work that certainly accentuated
that nightly walk, and continues to be
my Tokyo soundtrack today.
Mastered by Jack Marchment
Photography by Ian Hawgood
www.myspace.com/listentomichaelsantos