I discovered Memorials via an announcement they were coming to Atlanta, and their new album, All Clouds Bring Not Rain, didn’t just register but motivated me to suffer an Atlanta commute on a work night.
Some bands are easy to describe. Memorials is not one of them.
The UK duo of Verity Susman and Matthew Simms creates a sound that seems determined to resist any convenient label, shifting between distorted psychedelic rock, drone, psych folk, dub, post punk, jazz and experimental electronic music. I discovered Memorials via an announcement they were coming to Atlanta, and their new album didn’t just register as a work of interest but compelled me to suffer an Atlanta commute on a work night.
There is an obvious comparison to Stereolab, enough so that another reviewer once described Memorials as their “evil twin.” It is not a bad place to start, particularly given that several in attendance cited hearing the duo when they opened for Stereolab here in 2025. But Memorials are considerably more than a variation on that sound.
Susman, formerly of Electrelane, moves between keyboards, saxophone, recorder and vocals, while Simms, formerly of Wire, handles guitar and drums. Together they make considerably more “noise” than two people have any apparent right to make. Vintage electronics, loop pedals, tape delays and other effects become instruments in their own right, sometimes operated while Susman or Simms are simultaneously playing something else. Their album sounds complex, and you get every bit of that, plus more, live. From a duo.
The electronics, effects and varying musical references are there to build something larger, particularly evident whenever the band hits a groove. I enjoy the experimentation, but when the bass lines are fed into the mix and Simms hits the drums, songs like “Dropped Down the Well,” “Acceptable Experience” and “Holy Invisible” hit like ear candy. I’ve not heard anything about either member’s experience with bass, but they’re really good at it.
And, with the physical presence and rawness of Simms’ drumming on one of the simpler setups you’ll see, both help create a live aural experience that you don’t want to miss, never mind the visuals of knobs and buttons for effects.
“Acceptable Experience” is perhaps the clearest example, with a soulful, groove driven foundation supporting tape loops and jazz influenced melodies that float freely without ever losing the song underneath them. It is experimental music, certainly, but it is also music you can move to.
The live experience does not diminish All Clouds Bring Not Rain. Quite the opposite. The album remains a fascinating listen, particularly because of the care and layering that went into it. Recorded largely in a barn studio deep in the woods of southwestern France, the album sounds like the product of two musicians given the freedom to follow an idea wherever it leads. The live show simply reveals another side of it.
“Bell Miner,” which opened the set, was an early indication of that. The song’s shifting relationship between Susman’s organ and Simms’ drums offered a glimpse of the duo’s jazz adjacent side, hinting for those less familiar with the music that the rest of the evening would continue to move freely between its many influences.
Memorials played all but one song from All Clouds Bring Not Rain, giving the new album a thorough live workout while also showing why these songs belong on a stage. The final four songs were a killer finish, with “Mediocre Demon,” “Dropped Down the Well,” “Life Could Be a Cloud” and “Holy Invisible“ building on everything that had come before. The last has a broad, cinematic quality that seems almost destined to find its way into a film soundtrack someday. A definite favorite.
For me, Memorials may well be the best new artist of 2026. More importantly, they were a refreshing joy in a live concert experience, where music and performance surprise.
The band has a single date remaining in Virginia before heading back to the UK and Europe through the rest of the year. Give them a follow on Instagram, Bandsintown or Bandcamp and catch them when they return.
Setlist:
Encore:
Atlanta’s Small Reactions opened the evening. Described as an Indie post-punk, new wave, and “situational pop,” I found them to fit well into the post-punk category, and, absent vocals, an instrumental edge that could lead into post-rock.
The band confidently played their set, which makes sense as they have been around 15 years. They’re good, and there’s a lot of bands with similar music references that people pay to see on bigger stages. Check them out.
