Romance - You Must Remember This

[fumi]

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Washed & screwed ambient lushness by someone going under the name Romance, distilling reference points ranging from Tarkovsky soundtracks to the emotional grandiosity of Whitney Houston & Celine Dion smudged into something like Burial and The Caretaker’s hauntological ephemera for a session of pillow-kissing nostalgia. If yr into 0PN’s Eccojams, The Caretaker, Pinkcourtesyphone or The Disintegration Loops, don’t miss this.

We can tell you absolutely nada about the artist - whoever he or she may be - but what we can tell you is that  ‘You Must remember This’ offers a slow-burning session smearing traces of new age pop ballads and amorous Hollywood nuggets into half an hour of faded glamour. The style is patently redolent of Pinkcourtesyphone’s L.A. noir sensuality or the elusive good times elegance of The Caretaker, evoking atmospheres and altered states of consciousness with a soothing, emotive tactility carefully minded of our wyrd new world.

The set is split into two languorous dream sequences that slip time from its moorings; windswept strings signal a cineaste’s ear at work from the outset, luring listeners into a balmy twilight world aglow with ‘80s fantasy FM synth pads and given to bouts of syrupy screwed soul like one of 0PN’s Eccojams.

At its gauziest point in the 2nd half, the music’s silvery iridescence can’t help but remind us of Basinski’s decayed tape ambience, but the vibe is more palpably pulpy, like one of Keith Fullerton Whitman’s 500% slower edits of pop classics crafted as personal sleep aids; a purpose for which this tape is surely destined.