CD, Hive Records, 2008
www.memmaker.ca
Initially the solo project of Guillaume Nadon, as of January 2007, Memmaker became a duo with the addition of none other than Yann Faussurier (of Iszoloscope fame) as a full-time member. After a bombastic and acclaimed live debut for the duo at the C.O.M.A.4 festival in Montreal and selling out a set of Memmaker CD-R promos shortly after the concert in question, hype and expectation have been building around a full-length Memmaker release for quite some months. Finally, the wait is over and Hive Records have unleashed their debut opus, titled “How To Enlist In A Robot Uprising”.
The high expectations set for this release certainly weren’t deceived: on first listen this album packs more punch than Mike Tyson in top shape and scores in awesomeness in a level comparable to the Transformers and other more obscure robots that went down in sci-fi history (like Maximillian from “The Black Hole”). In a nutshell, “How To Enlist In A Robot Uprising” doubles up as a collection of tongue-in-cheek, flawlessly addictive and contagious floor-fillers, as well as a soundtrack to the ultimate robot invasion animation movie (and no, I’m not taking cues from the title). Interestingly, even some friends who aren’t remotely into electro-industrial or harder electronics were quite enthusiastic about Memmaker’s music (not so much about my speeding down the highway while blasting it though…). Believe it or not, intense as it may sound, the studio recordings of Memmaker’s brand of electro-industrial reckless party music are easily obfuscated by their live performance.
With repeated listening and with a more analytical mind-setting, some of the initial enthusiasm may fade. “How To Enlist In A Robot Uprising” is indeed superbly produced and Memmaker clearly achieved what they set out to do with this album, namely build a collection of high-octane and virulent floor-fillers. When taken individually, pretty much any track in this album is bound to stand out and be memorable in it’s own right. However, when assembled as an album whose beat count never drops below 126 bmp, one may find that there a degree of repetition begins to set in halfway through listening to it. And that’s where the main flaw of “How To Enlist In A Robot Uprising” lies, in a sense that it needs a certain something to add variety. Eventually, tracks such as “Death Comes (Sale Traître)”, “Get Your Ass To Mars” and “Energon3” will find their way into the list of awesome but overplayed tracks as is the inevitable fate of many club-hits, in a way ‘downgraded’ due to their effectiveness.
Make no mistake, despite the danger of the novelty eventually wearing off, this is an excellent debut release which sets the bar very high for any further material coming from Memmaker. The swift kick in the pants that the electro-industrial scenes are in dire need of, Memmaker is also accessible to a more general public and is bound to have some sort of ‘cross-scene’ appeal that may contribute to garner it additional fame. Definitely worth checking out.
[8/10]
— Miguel de Sousa