09. Memory Death

[WATER_CAN-_-]

In the album inlays, there are pictures of various obscured faces, quite reminiscent of a childhood memory. Were they implemented to further compliment the sense of nostalgia and revival of memories that appear in musical form on the album?

Mike: Yes, I tried to create an intensity of emotional texture with this Album. Reminiscent of memories of memories, memories of when I had fun that have since started to fade away and this album is an expression of that bitter-sweetness as if it had been lost forever. Both our music and my personal attitude come from a perspective of retrieving and exploring memories of the past, including the decay and emotional texture that are added to them as time progresses.

https://bocpages.org/wiki/Scotland%27s_Greatest_Mystery

[747Music]

This is one of the most soul-crushing, heart-wrenching songs I've heard. AWVFTS will certainly love this piece.

[Rex Reynolds]

Quite like this one. Was half expecting HAL 9000 to start singing a bicycle made for two. This one and All Reason Departs have simultaneous sense of hope & doom.

[qualia]

The title of this one (and the heart monitor-esque beeping) gave me the sense that perhaps some of this album is about coming to terms with aging and loss. Most of what makes a person is our memories, and as we age, our memories begin to disappear. With dementia and other cognitive decline it's common to experience "memory death" before bodily death.

[IronMark]

Does anyone have any guesses as to what the stretched-out voice is saying? To me it kinda sounds like 'please breathe' and the whole vibe with the heart monitor is like someone coming out of a coma.

[Sofa_Kartoffel]

This feels like they lost someone to dementia and the recurring „beep“ sound was sampled by them from some kind of hospital machine.

[kube]

The heart monitor beep is sometimes delayed by a split second and it freaks me out

[sowhereareyouliving?]

The heart monitor beep is sometimes delayed by a split second and it freaks me out

Good catch - in fact, from about 1:39 it gets increasingly delayed and then disappears

[DFD21]

That ending bass note really sounds final, doesn't it? There you go, Memory Death.

[Twoist]

Memory Death is the most heartbreaking track they've ever produced. Sitting listening to this in the dark and hearing what are almost certainly beeps of a heart monitor, the voice fading in and out, and to end with that final profound bass note. It properly got to me. What we believe will be our final moments of lucidity, the last moments we spend with our own memories - these are the things we fear the most.

[ryetronics]

Very similar whispy breath sounds just like in Opening the Mouth.

[mechanismj]

Very similar whispy breath sounds just like in Opening the Mouth.

LOVE the chord progression here. Eerie and somber.

The sustained chord that plays throughout sounds like it was taken from a film projector. A texture I feel like we haven't really heard since Carcan. Really adds to the ominous vibe.

[DFD21]

Trying to work out the rhythm on this one, but it's irregular: a fitting way to suggest the end of life.

As I expected, this LP is full of little twists to demonstrate once again that the Sandison bros are way ahead of us.

[egbdf]

Oddly enough it reminds me of The Beach at Redpoint

[Jango9]

This is one of the most soul-crushing, heart-wrenching songs I've heard. AWVFTS will certainly love this piece.

Absolutely. I still remember back when you first introduced me to A Winged Victory For The Sullen, took me an embarrassingly long time to check them out but I do indeed have quite a bit of their stuff in my library now! Sits very nicely next to my Aniima lmao. Also hello again, so good to finally see you back showing your face around these parts after all these years!

As for the song itself it does feel a bit like a spaced out verison of AWVTS but I also get some C418 and Burial off it, distincly BoC flavor all the way throughout nonetheless. Makes me imagine a satellite or a mars rover or something with old silicon chips that just got too rusty to properly manage the computers anymore leaving it a useless pile of metal floating through space or on a planet that it was supposed to return from. That's memory death for ya!

[pepster70]

This one hits me too hard.

I'm about the same age as Mike & Marcus. Two years ago, I was with my father during the last two months of his life. He spent his final week in a hospital as the cancer ate him away. This song puts me right back in that fucking room. Emotional devastation.

[Den]

Oddly enough it reminds me of The Beach at Redpoint

I hear this, similar movement but in slow motion.

[Decorah]

This track is wild I’m not sure I’ve have music elicit such feelings like this before.

[Decorah]

This track is wild I’m not sure I’ve have music elicit such feelings like this before.

[Redd Panderson]

Memory Death is the most heartbreaking track they've ever produced. Sitting listening to this in the dark and hearing what are almost certainly beeps of a heart monitor, the voice fading in and out, and to end with that final profound bass note. It properly got to me. What we believe will be our final moments of lucidity, the last moments we spend with our own memories - these are the things we fear the most.

I am tremendously glad to hear others echoing this. When I first heard this one, I more or less saw the same sort of thing. Starting with someone very dear to you dead, then hearing this expression of time turning backwards and then coming back into their last moments. I cried!