Danny Scott Lane – Memory Record
Kick off your shoes. Leave your day job behind you. And get seriously comfy as listening to the new album by LA-based producer Danny Scott Lane is an extremely chill experience. And it is truly is a carefully curated experience for Memory Record’s ambient, ethereal sounds stem from a gift from Lane’s grandfather, who encouraged him and his brother to record their memories on a microcassette recorder after poignantly himself being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
Emotionally deep, Memory Record is also sonically impressive, running Far Eastern motifs into isolated-retreat meditation. But, with the synth-work being nebulous to the point of vaporwave in parts, these are New Age sounds for replicants. And, a further surprise, Ei Talley II’s evocative flute then conjures timeless, misty mornings over the top of those subtly futuristic electronics. The lonely, light clattering of Eastern domesticity thus meets Western modernism, the Then and the Now, and yet Memory Record unspools as if in a steamy flotation tank, its idyllic Zen soothing in serene, dappled tones.
Entirely instrumental elsewhere, Julie Roche adds mystic Japanese spoken-word to the title-track, those diaphanous synths shimmering this time over plinky-plonky percussion. It’s a beautiful introduction to the single that follows too, laidback woodwind-chimes beckoning birdsong, twinkling keys and a barely-there beat. It’s a measure of metronomic pop from deep within the most horizontal annals of library music, incredibly soft pads and the shuffle of rain-sticks keeping these dreamy memories pulsing all the way through to the watery sauna sounds of “Is It Really Nice?”.
Ritualistic hand-drummed rhythms and the ebb and flow of the ocean on a stony shore later offer organic anchors to that melancholy synth, which just seems to hang in suspension quite magically, penultimate track “Bubble Year” consequently the soundtrack to walking around rainy pagoda gardens alone, while closer “Underwater Radio” cleanses the aura in turn with heavenly synth harmonies and needling acupuncture. Breathe it in deeply, your toes curled into the carpet, and save yourself a fortune on mindfulness.
~Memory Record is released November 15th 2019 via Moon Glyph.~