Future Loop Foundation Memories from a Fading Room

Future Loop Foundation's Memories from a Fading Room is a rather gorgeous album, a collection of almost subliminal, dulcet instrumental lullabies. Only rarely does the music explode into something like a beat driven section, but when it does, on longer tracks toward the end such as Sunshine Philosophy and The Sea and The Sky, the feel is joyful and luminous. Nostalgia flitters in the distant voices barely heard and slightly melancholy tones, but the effect is uplifting. These epics dramatically capitalize on a sublime mojo the tracks before have quietly, unobtrusively established. They are almost a catharsis to the unresolved haze that comes before.

Eagle Eyed subtly weaves sad vocoder, chilly strains and isolated piano plucks with the aforementioned voices, distant and sampled. (1976) is a fitting end to Memories from a Fading Room, letting the feelings and musical ideas that have developed from opening track Stereo '72 simply exist for seven minutes. This is not a 70s retro party in a VH1 sense, however, but something that evokes an idealized feeling from the past, tinged with a little bit of regret. The hypnotic and sometimes imperceptible tracks that flitter through the album play slightly different tones of this ambivalence, taking their time but transitioning stealthily

The music here would not be out of place on a Pure Moods compilation, or at the sentimental climax of a sports movie. It transcends such banal classifications, however, with an integrity and willingness to explore the emotions, lingering through them rather than exploiting cheap responses. Light, translucent keys. Repetitions drifting in and out. Plinks on a piano. Sounds evoking particularly pleasant windchimes. And those voices, the distant, half-heard voices. Future Loop Foundation's Memories from a Fading Room is an aptly titled and impressive collection of shimmering ambient instrumentation (with occasional beats).