That it is said of some musicians that they always surprise with new approaches may itself be something of a cliché. With Will Yates, aka Memotone, it is true insofar as he actually changes, or at least shifts, his approach from record to record. Whether that still makes for surprises, or has already become the expected constant? What certainly comes unexpectedly on Warm Shadows is the progression from piece to piece.
At the start, the title track suggests that Yates is once again exploring his clarinet in various contexts, with slowly probing jazz and an electronic treatment of the wind instrument that suggests a bow towards Jon Hassell. In the very next song, yes, really, Lithuanian musician Ugnė Uma sings after a spoken monologue over restrained individual guitar notes and an ostinato rhythm ticking away in the background, which wants to be less a beat than a time structure carried by discreet trembling.
The beat hides in the following number too, which one could read as improvisation with ambient elements, without it being clear exactly what instruments are being used – strings? Real ones? What remains constant on the record is the peaceful basic mood, which at the same time seems driven by unceasing curiosity. That can, in between, lead to an indie-rock number arranged so sparsely that, try as one might, no rock clichés can be found in it. Surprise. A good one.
Warm Shadows
