PUBLIC MEMORY announces Veil of Counsel EP for March 17 release

And shares chilling new track, 'Afterlife (Edit)'. The former Apse & ERAAS member follows up last year's potent debut with hypnotic, wintery new track

Photo Credit: Samantha Pease

“Disconcertingly otherworldly…Toher at his most focussed and, perhaps, most beguiling." - The Quietus
"Songs that throb with heartache and ache with emotion… They are brutally bare, offering up their grooves, their melodies and their gorgeous vocal motifs without the need for sugarcoating or excess decoration." - Loud & Quiet
“Spooked atmospheres via a gut-rupturing synth-bass drone & snatches of disembodied vocals. Mesmeric.” - Q
“Darkness prevails... like Massive Attack’s ghoulish ‘Risingson’ given a makeover by Pure X” – NME
“’Lunar’ absolutely glimmers” – Stereogum

Following last year’s haunting debut album, Wuthering Drum, New York’s Public Memory returns to the fold with a new EP. Veil of Counsel is set for release on March 17th via felte. and the first track, “Afterlife (Edit)” is streaming online now.

Public Memory is the solo work of Robert Toher, previously known for his work in ERAAS and Apse. His output is a concoction of damaged dubbed-out percussion, unfurling tape-delayed synths and sparse sampling; music potent in its haunting sense of space, conjouring powerful imagery that echoes around the foggy ether between the notes. Strung together by Toher's otherworldly vocals, Public Memory’s music finds a crossroad between krautrock, trip hop and coldwave.
 
Veil Of Counsel is the first formal release since the 2016 debut album, Wuthering Drum. With titles "Verdict,""Afterlife" and "Ecco", these three tracks seem to create a chronology that in themselves perhaps mark the end of the Wuthering Drum era for Public Memory, with a second album anticipated for late 2017.
 
Effectively, each track showcases a singular world, one distinct from the next. Each are different vestiges of paths not explored during Wuthering Drum, or maybe each is foreshadowing what may be yet to come. That said, Veil Of Counsel does not feel like a mere construction from the scraps left on its predecessor's cutting-room floor. These are ardent, earnest songs, crafted in colours and rhythms tapped right from the producer's source; a kind of alien emotion that walks the tightrope between one part romantic, nostalgic - the other introspective and dystopian.
 
Recorded over a year spent in Los Angeles, the debut album Wuthering Drum was released on felte in March '16 followed by the Gate At The End single in June ’16 and a US tour with Merchandise last Autumn. Earlier this month then saw the sudden release of Wuthering Drum Reworks, an album of remixes which flies all over the electronic spectrum of genres. Some standouts included the synth-pop laced Tempers remix of “Heir", Rémy Charrier’s memorizing, melodic art-techno take on “Cul De Sac" and the vapor-trailed version of The Sight Below’s take on “Lunar.”
 
Links: 
http://felte.bandcamp.com
Wuthering Drum album stream
Wuthering Drum Reworks album stream
Public Memory on Facebook
Public Memory on Twitter
Public Memory on Instagram
Public Memory on Bandcamp

For more information please contact kate@stereosanctity.co.uk / t. +44 7812 607 230

Hear “Afterlife (Edit)” here: https://soundcloud.com/felte/public-memory-aferlife-edit

March 1, 2017 6:33am ET by Stereo Sanctity  

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