I was gifted a copy of David Keenan’s novel This is Memorial Device by one of my good friends back in December, and I’ve had it hovering around me somewhere ever since. So, when I saw a soundtrack to the stage adaptation composed by Stephen Pastel and Gavin Thomson – being a big fan of The Pastels – I was immediately hooked.
The soundtrack, clocking in at just over half an hour, has moments of indie rock, narration and cinematic backing. Opening track ‘Introduction to Why I Did It’ centres pensive keys and breathy vocals before the onset of distinctly Scottish voiceover. The airy sway of the track along with the establishing narrative feels as though you are floating toward the ground, an image of what is to come slowly drifting into focus. As the instrumentation collides with one another in the sky, oscillating and crashing, the track concludes with the statement “and now already it’s the rotten past, isn’t it? Dead and buried, gone forever, we all know that?”
‘We Have Sex’ is the most identifiable piece of indie rock on the record, although you’d still have to squint a bit to see it as The Pastels. Hypnotic and danceable, the vocals distorted and delayed, the track is powered forward by a driving bassline that works away under the cacophony that sits above. Like a melting pot of early 80s alternative music, there are identifiable nuggets of punk, goth, post-punk and indie rock all floating around in the stew. It’s the record’s biggest earworm and probably one of the few songs you’re able to add to a playlist when it’s all said and done.
‘The Most Beautiful House in Airdrie’ is tranquil with its soft guitar strums and meandering woodwind, as well as the return of the breathy vocals that opened the record. The programmed drums lay a solid foundation for the track to nestle into, as the other elements wrap themselves around one another to weave a comforting blanket. It’s a song that could almost be added to a ‘lo-fi beats to study/relax to playlist’, gentle and devoid of lyrics, it makes it easy to get lost in.
‘Square Peg in a Black Hole’ opens on narration that establishes the basis of the track; being shown an experimental tape by a friend on a drive. The rattle of the tape being put in gives way to the droning, discordant of its contents. A ringing sound repeats, punctuating with its sonar-esque sound. The drums are drowning below a dense mass of drone.
‘I Started Painting Landscapes’ sees a brief foray into post-rock-adjacent progressions, this transcendent rock backing that adds a cinematic flair to the narration that sits atop the whole thing. ‘Chinese Moon’ sees a reprise of the keys that first appeared on ‘Introduction to Why I Did It’, accompanied with this distorting, humming guitar drones. These keys and the atmosphere that comes with them feels like a theme for memory, like sitting in the brain and watching analogue film memories on a projector, slightly warped and expired in storage.
‘Footsteps in the Snow’ has these fragments of bleeping electronis that reminded me a little bit of Jon Brion’s score for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, like the shards of memories swimming back and melding into one another. The post-rock influences that were present on ‘I Started Painting Landscapes’ are followed through here, with the song rising to a soft peak. The horns and plink-plonk of various instruments remind me of a band like Sigur Ros.
Finally, ‘The Morning of the Executions’ is another Sigur Ros inflected number, with bold, anthemic horns undercut with woodwind cymbals. It really feels like a “credits roll” track, bringing all the disparate elements to a boil and tying all the loose ends into a neat bow.
This is Memorial Device’s score is a really fitting piece of accompanying music. I can’t think of a better musical outfit to pair with the source text, and as expected they knock it out the park. It makes me really want to watch the adaptation, because I was emotionally affected just listening to the score. A well weaved score pulling from indie, post-rock, post-punk and ambient/drone that feels like a love letter to not just Memorial Device, but the music and music scenes that inspired it.
Stephen Pastel & Gavin Thomson: This Is Memorial Device – Out 28th June 2024 (Domino)
