Three years in the making, recorded in soothing pop locales Sweden, Miami and Cape Town, Pallers' The Sea of Memories at long last makes its way into the world. Henrik Mårtensson and Johan Angergård's exceedingly approachable album reflects their idyllic recording process: never hurried, never overdone, a sound rooted in clubs but drifting just as easily up out the skylight and east down Ocean Blvd. The Sea is careful and precise, with a pretty spare production core comprised of a tight drum machine, always-arpeggiating synth and long-tail guitar strums. Its songs find themselves based on how they blend new layers in—house beat hand drums ("The Kiss"), a field sample from a party ("Tropical Fishbowl"), a piano with heavy delay ("Nights"). 18 months after we first posted it, "The Kiss" is still a standout, capturing happy vibes wistful and fleeting, but stick around for the tougher posturing on "Wicked," our new giving-up-on-love favorite. The Sea of Memories comes out September 27th on Labrador.
