Memory Tapes

Prolific one-man-band Dayve Hawk hides behind a lot of confusing names—his latest, Memory Tapes, is a conflation of his Memory Cassette and Weird Tapes projects—but he makes music that feels instantly, warmly familiar. Hawk’s 2009 debut,Seek Magic, is like a nostalgic daydream of a summer that probably never existed, painted in lovely watercolor blobs with Saint Etienne-esque dream-pop flutters, woozy synthesizer burbles, New Order basslines, and gently insistent disco rhythms better suited for shag carpets than concrete floors. Hawk’s brand-new album, Player Piano, edges farther from the two danceable projects that begat Memory Tapes toward lush, scatterbrained bedroom pop, though still coated with his high production style.

Updated 07/26/2011