Remember Remember – Forgetting The Present

If the sole mark of a good band is the consistent progression of a singular sound whilst remaining true to a core ethos, then Glasgow sextet Remember Remember can be considered up there with the best. Since their 2008 eponymous debut, the group have gone from a side-project for main man Graeme Ronald and his loop pedal to a fully-fledged, prog-like force to be reckoned with.

Such advancement continues with third album Forgetting The Present, whose opening salvo Blabbermouth swoops in with such confidence and poise that it’s initially difficult to reconcile this as being the same outfit who gave us protracted, piecemeal epics such as Fountain/Mountain just a few short years ago.

Rather than aurally build its structures brick by painstaking brick, much of Forgetting The Present comes on fully constructed in this way, like a pre-fabricated crystalline cathedral spinning in a starry cosmos.

The general nod to repetition remains of course, but here the loops form more of a tone-setting background over which the six-piece mesh a looser, livelier organic template. It’s bolstered by the overall feel of more assured production and, despite the countless layers of sound, a mind-set of ‘less is more’ throughout.

Despite the contradictory album title, Forgetting The Present is an indelible work, surely bound to remain etched on the memory way into the future.