Release Date: 7 April 2017
Song Count: 13
Duration: 40 minutes, 13 seconds
Rating: 5.7/10
Description:
A highly experimental act breaking the boundaries of artistic and musical expression is our next destination, as today we glance into The Octopus Project's sixth studio album, Memory Mirror. The Austin-based band consists of members Toto Miranda as well as siblings Yvonne and Josh Lambert, and has been creating unique visual and aural experiences - particularly through their live shows - since their foundation all the way back in 1999. Described as an unorthodox blend of pop, rock, electronica and psychedelia combined into one, their musical style is unlike those of most others one is likely to find out there, and Memory Mirror plunges directly into their extraterrestrial and whimsical ideas and creations with the way it sounds.
The classic rock lineup of instruments - guitars, bass and drums - are interwoven with digitalised sounds like synths and sawtooth-like tunes to create a versatile instrumental as the vocals thrown in on occasion round out the general trip-inducing and mesmerising effect of the music. Tracks are easy to get lost in with their deliberate loops and repetitions, drawing attention away from themselves albeit whilst also introducing conventionally strange-sounding elements and segments within the tracks at times to keep some amount of focus in a sort of self-contradictory way. The album achieves this form of mental absorption within the listener all whilst refraining from using any sort of clutter or large amounts of sounds and instruments at once, achieving plenty with seemingly very little.
Unfortunately, the praise that can be handed out towards Memory Mirror in the contexts of inducing a musical trance through its tracks only applies proper at very specific moments within the album, as a majority of it, in an attempt to lean into this effect, only ends up coming off as less intriguing and less worthwhile of a repeated listen, negatively affecting its memorability. Selling an experience like the one this record is trying to do requires a lot of concentrated effort and, more importantly, a sort of meticulous set-up to make sure the listening experience flows as intended, and with Memory Mirror, there seems to be something simply missing to make it click and propel it forward.
The Octopus Project, as a niche group with a rather rich history, seems to be absolutely full of ideas and creativity which could be easily turned into phenomenal pieces of music with the right building blocks, and their sixth venture seems to be eager in displaying this - however, when only taking this particular record into consideration, it would seem that there is yet a way to go before the band reaches their full potential. Perhaps they have done so since the release of this, however, and the only way to tell would be to jump further down the depths of their music, so one will only have to see if that materialises in the future. For now, at least for yours truly, it is perfectly fulfilling with content to pick this one up for a ride and then put it down and to solely return to it again in the midst of rare spurts.