The hypnotic Memory Tapes played Glasslands with TEEN and Denitia and Sene this week, who each brought totally different musical vibe to the room, but it all culminated into a finale dance party thanks to Memory Tape’s bouncing basslines, and the crowd chanting “One! More! Song!” before the house music just came back on.
The crowd for Memory Tapes actually appeared somewhat polarized. Not that some people weren’t feeling it, but the divide was in the way they showed it. If I looked left, people were more just taking it in, maybe slightly rocking or bobbing their head. But to my right – that’s where there were hands in the air, full-on dancing bodies with smiling wide faces. Before ever seeing Memory Tapes, I had always thought of the music as more of an ambience enhancer. Live, it’s straight jams. Dayve Hawk’s softer vocals remain subtle, and definitely take a backseat to his guitar solos. Having a bassist who plays and pouts with duck-lipped attitude doesn’t hurt either, and those psychedelic brightly colored geometric light projections over everyone’s face was a cool extra hypnotic effect.
Starting the night off on a more mellow note was Denitia and Sene, an electro-soul duo. They had a live bassist and drummer/sampler with them on stage, and all together their tunes sounded like they were trying (and succeeding) to bring back the good side of 90s R&B, hip hop, and jazz fusions, with more modern electronic elements. I guess that’s what the “electro-soul” descriptor more concisely informs, but basically, Denitia and Sene are the re-rebirth of slick.
TEEN went in a different direction, sounding at times reminiscent of Kate Bush; at others more like The Raincoats. Singer/songwriter Teeny Lieberson used to be in Here We Go Magic, and this is what has become of her bedroom solo project, now fleshed out with a couple of her sisters and a best friend. Their set had this feel of an experiment in progress, but much of what is happening as the same kind of strange allure as what Austra was doing before they really started to catch on. It’s weird, it’s sometimes uncertain, but it’s definitely art.
Memory Tapes have now finished up their show run for the time being, but they have all kinds of remixes and other news bits on their blog. On the other hand, TEEN has quite the extensive tour ahead, with dates all over the US and Europe from now till April. Check them all on the band’s Facebook. Denitia and Sene are keeping it local for now, with a couple more dates in NYC.
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