memoryland

Montreal producer Mike Silver’s music as CFCF has often cast a nostalgic glance backward, whether via the wistful New Age tones of 2015’s *Radiance & Submission*, the dreamy Balearic accents of 2016’s *On Vacation*, or the gentle drum ’n’ bass of 2019’s *Liquid Colours*. As its title might suggest, *Memoryland* also dwells upon the past, but this time the view is less rose-tinted. Motivated by moods he’s described as “angsty, messy, and dark,” Silver delves into the music of his twenties as a way of working through the confusion of young adulthood, putting special emphasis on ’90s electronica. The terrain makes for some surprising musical shifts, given CFCF’s previous catalog: Alongside shoegazing IDM (“Model Castings”) and drill ’n’ bass (“Nostalgic Body”), he takes in euphoric progressive house (“Night/Day/Work/Home”), breakbeat trance (“Slippery Plastic Euphoric”), and a note-perfect pastiche of French touch (“Self Service 1999”). “After the After” is a vocoder-led stab at 2-step garage, and “Dirty” harnesses post-rock guitars, while “Gravure Idol” begins in familiar ambient territory but gradually swells into a throbbing expression of widescreen sound design. But CFCF has always been something of a trickster, and here, too, nothing is quite what it seems. The title of “Life Is Perfecto” nods to Paul Oakenfold and his pop-trance crossover hits of the ’90s, yet the song sounds more like Squarepusher remixing The Cure. “Punksong” also evokes Robert Smith and his doleful crew—this time, the alternative-pop sensibilities of *Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me*. But even when CFCF doesn’t actually sound like The Cure, it’s easy to understand how he might be influenced by them: Few artists have more eloquently gone angstier, messier, or darker in their music—and few have so keenly balanced abject despair with giddy elation. Silver is similarly torn between extremes: In *Memoryland*, returning to the past is a thrillingly bittersweet affair.

The Montreal producer fondly glances back at his formative musical memories of the late 1990s: commercial electronica and alternative rock, in all their occasionally kitschy glory.

Here is another quality electronic release setting out to explore a specific musical era. Last month, British producer Danny L. Harle mined ...

On memoryland, CFCF builds a time machine to take you back to the sounds of '90s techno, house, and dance-pop.