We’ve covered the work of Bristol-based artist Will Yates on Ban Ban Ton Ton before. I’ve written a bit about the music he makes under the alias O.G. Jigg – modern classical compositions that, in places, reference 70s folk horror and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop – but his stuff as Memotone is something quite different. Instead drawing inspiration from Jon Hassell’s Fourth World explorations. Will’s new album, How Was Your Life?, is a set of improvisations, experiments, conducted solely with a vintage guitar synthesiser, a Roland GR33, and the opening track, Paradise Drips, is an electro-acoustic sketch for summer that’s part Vini Reilly / Durutti Column and part Hassell. Circuitry chattering like rainforest wildlife. On Open World there are echoed high-pitched blasts that recall the horns on Hassell and Brian Eno’s Ba-Benzélé. This aural heat-haze is also cut by GR33-synthesised contrabass. Giving the track an “enlightened” Don Cherry-esque jazz feel. Glow In The Dark takes this further. A fidgeting sort of fusion, with a boogie b-line, wonky wobbly wah wah effects, it dances to a Middle Eastern / North African melody.  

The Roland machine also manages to accurately mimic tabla, woodwinds, and Oriental / Asian timbres. Sitar, and wheezy harmonium drone. On Carved By The Moon it summons swooning symphonic strings. On Canteen Sandwich the GR33 generates bamboo percussion, which is used to build some terrific techno tintinnabulations. Lonehead suddenly bursts into Hawaiian slide. Field recordings of fresh water, showers, and thunderstorms are stirred into the mix, and the results recall the recordings of several celebrated contemporaries – such as RamZi, Alan “Shelter” Briand’s recent album, Asa Tone’s excellent LP from a few years ago, and the also Bristol-based Deep Nalstrom.  

Memotone’s How Was Your Life? Is out now on Patience / Impatience.