[rating=2.00]
The debut from Tel Aviv guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Yair Yona attempts to bridge the vast span between atmospheric indie instrumentalism and Delta blues slide guitar, and while the result is undoubtedly original, it often comes to rest somewhere in the inter-genre no-man’s land reserved for smooth jazz and elevator music. Remember has the slow, muddy pulse and rusty tones of its Delta roots, but the monotonal all-string sound and droning, amelodic tunes lack their influences’ sweaty soul and grit.
Like much of the album, “Pharaoh” and “Struggled So Hard” call to mind the rock-inspired bottleneck blues of modern practitioners like Kelly Joe Phelps and Tony Furtado, but without the melodies and changes, they beg for the banshee wail of Robert Plant and the pounding drums of John Bonham—anything to breathe some life into the guitar hero noodling. “Russian Dance” layers banjo, mandolin, harpsichord and accordion over a flurrying gypsy rhythm, and while the interweaving strings are rich and the playing is technically solid, they fail to fill in the gaps where the melody should be.
Ironically, the slow, mournful tracks like “Are You Smarter than a 35 Year-Old TV Host” and “Broken Rocking Chair” are more lively and complete, going beyond the vague Mississippi hipster mood, and filling in the plotlines to tell the full story. The perfectly titled “Floodgate Opens for a Ship to Come Through” is the extreme case, and all this Delta blues for the shoegazer set comes off as the strongest material here, but ultimately, even listeners with a taste for instrumental music will find that the muddy expanse between modern and traditional is just too wide for Remember to cross.
