Lowfish - Memories Are Uncertain Friends

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release

5...according to our Ant on Thu 18 Nov, 2010.

Super awesome to have some new Lowfish material on his always fantastic Solvent Label. Well, this isn't exactly new material but a collection of unreleased tracks selected from old DAT's, Cassette's and Mini-Discs dating back to 1995 through to 1999. I've been digging this man's stuff for many years now (on Satamile, Ersatz Audio, Awkward Silence etc.) so this release is particularly exciting for me and I can tell you it does not disappoint. Gregory De Rocher knows how to rock those analogue boxes good and proper and the results are as close to my approximation of what perfect electronic music should be. 'The Egg' for example is so up my alley it hurts. The term electro has been so abused over the years but our Canadian man knows the true meaning. All the best elements of electro, techno, IDM and EBM are here. Raw cold machine sounds juxtaposed with human warmth, soul and melody, a dose of robo-funk and startling sonic visions of our unknown future. So many great synthesizer and drum machine sounds to be heard on here it's a listen that will reward again and again. There are darker moments like 'UFO' and spine tingling beauty as heard on 'Drum Machine 2'. Edition of 250 hand numbered copies in metal tin case. Totally on the money and highly recommended.

"Memories Are Uncertain Friends" is 13 tracks of timeless raw melodic electronica and experimental "IDM".
All tracks were written, produced and recorded live by Gregory De Rocher between 1995-1999.
These tracks are from a time when the Lowfish "sound" was still evolving. In these tracks you hear a distillation of influences including new wave (OMD, Depeche Mode), early Warp Records (Autechre, Polygon Window), industrial (Skinny Puppy) and techno (Plasktikman) mixed with a discovery of electro. The mandate was to make pure, honest instrumental electronic music that would stand the test of time and steer clear of gimmicks and fashion.
Working with a stack of analog synthesizers, drum machines, hardware sequencers and early music computers a set of practices was adopted that continues to this day. Everything was recorded live in one go (no multi-tracking) and effects were mostly delay with little reverb or "space" added. The purity and spontaneity of sounds from analog machines was the rule. "Patches" were never saved nor re-used again, arrangements and sequences were deleted when songs were finished and recording quality was secondary to "feeling". The results were somewhat low fidelity and this lo-fi ish sound inspired the name "Lowfish".
A few notable labels offered to release Lowfish tracks at the time but the delay between finishing the music and hitting the streets was too long. Thus, Suction Records was born in late 1997 to serve as a vehicle for Lowfish and similar sounds.
The title "Memories Are Uncertain Friends" is borrowed from the lyrics of a favourite OMD track — best describing the suspicion I had towards doing this release. These tracks are so deeply in a niche not widely known, I can't imagine anyone but the most "hardcore" caring about them. Then again, that's reason enough to release stuff like this.
Most of these tracks were recovered from aging cassettes, DATs and minidisks then mastered by Taylor Deupree at 12K.
Thanks to everyone that gets this sound, cares deeply about credible electronic music and has shown support from the start.