UTOPIUM - No Memory Man

11 songs
51:16 minutes
***** **
Planet Of Sounds

Bandpage

No Memory Man has already been released more than two years ago, but as Utopium, a Paris based band consisting of members from France, Russia and Mexico, will play a show in Luxembourg in late spring, it’s well worth it to have a look at their debut album. Coming with a cool cover artwork that reminds of stylistically of Hugh Syme and a top notch production, the band wanders from postrock to indie rock and back again. The opener Deuce for instance is 100% post rock, while the following Sandstorm sees the band flirting with late Eighties psychedelic alternative sounds, somewhere between The Jesus And Mary Chain and Swervedriver. Two short, untitled instrumentals, the French titled Maintenant vous pouvez fermer les yeux and the closing NHOH (including a hidden bonus track, yawn!) are further excursions into instrumental postrock, while the remaining material is much more rock oriented, with melodic vocals, regular song structures, and enough guitar reverb to give them that druggy feeling that we liked so much before grunge was taking over.

No Memory Man work well on both bases. Utopium are competent songwriters, and their instrumentation is muscular enough to make their material interesting. Their excursions into postrock are maybe not that original, and sometimes over too soon, but still smartly done in their own way. If the band managed to combine those two separate styles into one cohesive entity in the future, there could be really something grand looming ahead of us. No Memory Man is still a good enough debut with pleasing songs and enveloping atmospheres that will keep you occupied for three quarters of an hour.