Aurgasm

The Memory Band’s self-titled debut made it onto my Best of 2004 list, and received raves from a Who’s Who of mainstream music journalism – Mojo, NME, Q, etc. And yet, inexplicably, they remain under-exposed and under-appreciated (if their Audioscrobbler results are anything to go by, anyway). The two tracks here are beguiling gems, but are only a shade better than the rest of the album, which is full of earthy grace and delight from start to finish. I particularly like ‘This is How We Walk on the Moon’, which is vaguely Four Tet-ish and sounds like ivy crawling up walls; but ‘Ploughshares’ is equally pleasant, a swarm of sunny glints on the ocean.
Soft but confident, a stroke of genius.