The 12-track album was recorded in Cromwell’s home studio in Catford, South London in 2020 & 2021 and was mixed in Brooklyn, New York at ACME Hall Studies by Rich Bennett, it will be out on March 18 via Happy Robots Records. Pre-order your copy here.
Memory Box fuses a European synthpop sensibility with a world of magical realism. It was inspired as much by the literature of Alice in Wonderland, Franz Kafka and Anna Kavan, as by its musical influences of artists such as Kraftwerk, Neu!, The Cure, Silver Apples, Oppenheimer Analysis and Polyrock. The sonic pallet of 'Memory Box' is rich, colourful, often surprising and utterly unique.
Opening with two synthpop numbers, the dystopian coldwave of ‘Intercom,’ with its twisted robot voices, that promise us “order will be resumed shortly.” This order comes swiftly in the form of ‘Opus Three’ a pounding dance-floor filler, reminiscent of the best of Vince Clarke, that asks us to dance in the face of "catastrophe".
'Memory Box' mixes synthpop, hauntology, dreampop and European coldwave, using analogue synths and drum machines with minimal computer sequencing. Cromwell creates a distinctive and compelling organic, dream-like world, inspired as much by Alice in Wonderland and Franz Kafka as by sonic influences like Kraftwerk, The Cure, Polyrock and Stereolab.
"At it’s heart, ‘Opus Three’ is the simplest of dance numbers - a full-fat 120 bpm beat, layered with a chunky Moog Opus 3 synth line, overlaid with percussion and the buzzing tones of a 1960’s pocket stylophone. Inspired by Anna Kavan's surreal novel ‘Ice’, this song is about two lovers on the brink of apocalypse, separated by distance and lost in time, trying to find positivity in a world where there is little. “Don’t let it be, catastrophe” repeats the chorus, trying to conjure optimism from somewhere," says Rodney Cromwell (the nom de plume Adam Cresswell).
B-side "Perception Management" is an atmospheric dystopian synth instrumental conveying a sense of ‘post-truth pop’.
Check out the album's tracklist and listen to "Opus Three" below.
Memory Box Tracklist:
01. Intercom
02. Opus Three
03. Memory Box
04. Fluctuations
05. Waiting Room
06. Butterflies In The Filing Cabinet
07. Cloud Catalogue
08. The Small Print
09. The Department Of Public Tranquillity
10. Wristwatch Television
11. Calculations
12. The Winter Palace
