Grace/Confusion (Bonus Track Version)

Memory Tapes is the chillwave-tagged work of New Jersey's Dayve Hawke, something of a blend of his other musical ids Memory Cassette and Weird Tapes. With Memory Tapes, the somewhat reclusive musician creates gentle, pastel-colored music that pings between navelgazing and dancing, and he's progressed with both grace and fairly startling leaps. This beguiling (if uneven) collection has songs of seven or eight minutes, brief bridges of oodly-noodly guitar (grin-inducing in "Thru the Field"), and tunes that move from atmospherics and mood to serious dance floor calisthenics in seconds. "Let Me Be" opens with dark, gurgling sounds, the kind you hear in unsettling dreams. But soon the dark turns to glimmering light and then onto more shadowy, fearsome tones just before—ready?—steel drums and oscillating synths paint a remarkably intriguing canvas. It's one of many smart and unexpected moves on Grace/Confusion, and it may just be what growing pains sound like.