Memoria - The Midnight Ball.

  • Label: Self-released.
  • Year: 2006.
  • Style: Progressive acoustic.
  • Format: CD.
  • Note:
  • Score: 85%

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From Australia comes MEMORIA, a young and totally un-shy duo consisting of Jonathan Carrol and Prof. Basley. It was no easy task to write a fair review on this release for some reasons. Most mentionable; I have never heard anything like this before. To compare MEMORIA’s sound to the soft side of OPETH isn’t to be totally wrong. But also, there are some melodies that sound pretty much like TENHI and NEUN WELTEN with some added tempo and rock elements. There are also waves of Spanish guitar playing in as well as every song, as well as samples and field recording here and there which gives a nice mood.

All the guitars are acoustic and super-controlled. The vocals ranges from harmonic to demonic and the drums are totally unpredictable, sometimes they disappear and suddenly they are everywhere.
The lyrics describe various scenarios cantered around a ghastly midnight ball, and I think they’re pretty nice actually, gives me vibes of an old horror movie.

“The Midnight Ball”’s first track is an untitled ambient experiment consisting pretty much of a heavy wind blowing, and some footsteps. Track two shows all the other sides of MEMORIA; a beautiful intro, fast plucks, the Spanish guitar I mentioned, the vocal’s span… The rest of the songs follow that same pattern and there isn’t one single track I can’t recommend enough actually. My absolute favourite, though, is “From The Theatre”, I just love its progressive sound and unexpected turns.

“The Mindnight Ball” is self-released by MEMORIA, check their homepage for ordering instructions: www.memoria.com.au, and be sure you don’t miss this little gem.

Tracklist:

  1. -
  2. The Midnight Ball
  3. Andalucia
  4. From the Theatre
  5. Into the Mist
  6. Dining With Mr. W

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