MEMORIALS Announce New Album With 'Cut Glass Hammer'
(Clarion Call Media) MEMORIALS, Electrelane frontwoman Verity Susman and Wire guitarist Matthew Simms, are excited to announce their new album All Clouds Bring Not Rain out March 27 on Fire Records.
The album will be released digitally, on CD, and across three limited citrus vinyl editions: Orange Vinyl, Lemon Vinyl (Indie Store Exclusive), and a Lime Vinyl Bundle, which includes four hand-stamped art prints in a signed, wax-sealed envelope plus a sticker sheet (Fire Records & Bandcamp Exclusive).
Today the band is sharing the album's lead single "Cut Glass Hammer" and its accompanying music video. The track debuted today at Magnet Magazine and is on all streaming platforms for playlist shares.
Recorded mostly in a studio in a barn secluded deep in the woods in southwestern France, the album is imbued with the sense of freedom that experience evokes. The duo locked themselves away and re-emerged with a beautiful, unusual record that is both melodic and unconventional. For such an ambitious album it's striking that it was written, performed, recorded and mixed solely by the two of them.
Sounding like an unearthed lost classic, MEMORIALS twist their influences into their own unmistakable sound. Imagine Nico singing with Can produced by David Axelrod and you're somewhere in the right ballpark... for a song or two at least! The record draws inspiration from a wide range of music including folk, dub, post punk, experimental tape music, 60s soul, garage rock, 70s spiritual jazz and Canterbury prog.
Having spent the first half of 2025 composing the soundtrack to an acclaimed documentary about Kate Bush which hit TV screens in the autumn, the band recorded All Clouds Bring Not Rain in the summer before setting off on tour with Stereolab across the U.S.
They say, "We are increasingly drawn to the way records used to be made, both the sound of the equipment used and the choices forced by that equipment; there wasn't the option to tinker for ages, it was about capturing a moment in time and committing to that. It's far more satisfying to record sounds that exist in a real space and so become unique to us: they aren't the same as the samples readily available everywhere...we are actively turning away from the easy option at almost every opportunity!"
This attention to detail in their sound meant finding several other studios to get what they needed to record with, including a harpsichord at 4AD's studio in London and a vibraphone and vintage Leslie speaker in Stereolab drummer Andy Ramsay's studio Press Play.
Verity's distinctive, unadorned singing is a focal point of the record, moving from tender to wild. Her vocal melodies quickly become earworms, providing the tuneful heart around which the songs' more unorthodox elements are arranged, which is where Matthew's unconventional approach to recording and production comes to the fore. This can be heard, for example, on "Wildly Remote," an alluring lullaby that arrives out of a sea of drones and then opens up in the middle into an unexpected saxophone-tape-loop solo before the final verse returns: from delicate to edgy, playful to intense.
Lead single "Cut Glass Hammer" began as experiment in not changing chord, built around two constantly evolving modular synth lines, with lyrics inspired by a trip the band took to the Yoko Ono retrospective Music of the Mind at London's Tate Modern gallery. "In The Weeds" blends dub and folk into an anarchic, eccentric but surprisingly catchy pop song. While "Bell Miner," a post-punk ballad of sorts, takes its name from the Bell Miner birds encountered by the duo in Melbourne's Botanic Gardens whilst on tour in Australia - listen closely and you can hear their field recordings of the birds.
Elsewhere "Dropped Down The Well" is a bleak banger that has become a live favourite since the band introduced it into their live shows last year. "Mediocre Demon" takes shape around a dancingly groovy bass line with choral vocals, vibraphone and tape manipulations in the pocket: it is a soulful, retro-futurist song that treads new sonic waters for the band.
With their adventurous arrangements, classic songwriting skills and innovative production techniques, MEMORIALS have created another mesmerising listen that's accomplished and compelling in its unique approach yet remains dizzyingly immersive, just like their acclaimed live shows.
Tour Dates
April 08 - Le Hasard Ludique, Paris, France
April 09 - Le Tangram, Evreux, France
April 10 - Variations Festival, Nantes, France, w/ Einsturzende Neubauten
April 11 - Calm, Limoges, France
April 12 - La Petite Populaire, La Reole, France
April 14 - Le Consortium, Dijon, France
April 15 - Le Grand Mix, Tourcoing, France, w/ Bibi Club
April 22 - The Croft, Bristol, UK
April 23 - Little Bully, Oxford, UK
April 24 - Prince Albert, Brighton, UK
April 26 - Heartbreakers, Southampton, UK
April 29 - The Lexington, London, UK
April 30 - Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds, UK
May 01 - The Castle Hotel, Manchester, UK
May 31 - Nachtasyl, Hamburg, Germany
June 01 - Kantine am Berghain, Berlin, Germany
June 02 - Noch Besser Leben, Leipzig, Germany
June 03 - Kohi, Karlsruhe, Germany
June 04 - Club Manufaktur, Schorndorf, Germany
June 05 - Bellevue Di Monaco, Munchen, Germany
June 06 - Rotown, Rotterdam, Netherlands
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