[Yore Records]

In spite of their name, The Memory Foundation is one of many techno acts whose 90’s heyday hasn’t translated into contemporary renown. The Vienna-born, Berlin-based duo of Michael Peter and Martin Retschitzegger (who’ve produced together under several other aliases including Hi-Lo, Ratio and Glory B) certainly provided enough reasons to be remembered. Their excellent first EP was released by Robert Hood’s M-Plant (the imprint’s first foreign act and third ever record) and followed by “Breakpoint,” one of the first Out to Lunch releases. Assertive but not hard-nosed, melodic yet not florid, repetitive without sounding one note, The Memory Foundation’s Detroit-influenced tracks were a good fit for Hood’s label and the crates of driving minimal techno fans. Yet their most concerted self-preservation efforts — starting their own label, Central, to house much of their material — likely insulated the duo from less savvy fans. After four years of radio silence, The Memory Foundation are back with “Reptiles In Exile,” a new four tracker for Andy Vaz’s generally spot on Yore Records that showcases their housier side.

Time was you had to track down one of Peter and Retschitzegger’s Glory B or Hi-Lo records to hear them swing. “Reptiles In Exile” consolidates their oeuvre into one guise, dropping the BPMs from their 90’s apogee to more deliberate, almost weary tempos while maintaining a tech palette. From the hefty bass to pushy synth strings, adventurous leads and plucked motifs cutting squiggly lines across its length, gravity weighs heavily upon “Words” in contrast with its soaring melodies. Glistening timbres and playful, vampy wiggles convey cheerfulness in the otherwise bittersweet chord progression driving “Bass Traveler.” It’s a compelling and immediately playable track, but I wish they would have let DJs choose when to drop out the lows rather than doing so themselves, twice. While its fine craftsmanship and full sound are conspicuous, “Summer Visions” merely recycles the two-chord piano motif and sustained strings in so many new house tracks without adding more than a walking bass line and hints of reverb (and liner notes reveal it samples Damián Schwartz’s “Quimica Afluencia”). “Reptiles,” meanwhile, sounds like My My’s Songs For the Gentle smashed open and rearranged in a clunky new shape, rife with disparate samples and timbres arranged around a throbbing 303. For having let their synths and sequencers collect dust for a number of years, “Reptiles In Exile” is an enjoyable if uneven return for The Memory Foundation. Whether this second act does much for their legacy is to be seen.