I Guess Sometimes I Need to Be Reminded of How Much You Love Me

fter a number of limited edition cassettes and vinyl releases, Magnetophone made the move to the influential independent label 4AD for their debut album, the awkwardly titled I GUESS SOMETIMES I NEED TO BE REMINDED OF HOW MUCH YOU LOVE. Performed in part on homemade keyboards, the album is a genuinely strange product, mixing elements from early electronics pioneers like Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, and Jean Michel Jarre (especially his OXYGENE album) with freaked-out, paranoid clattering drums, bursts of heavily distorted guitars, and pretty synth melodies.
Standouts include "Oh Darlin'", which is full of sudden stops and starts and includes the album's only vocals (though they're so distorted as to be unintelligible), and "Californium", which suggests nothing so much as a demented circus anthem. "Air Methods" begins with an oddly tense but sedate tone, before introducing massive guitar riffs that become more and more disjointed and threatening as the track progresses, while "Love Needs You" incorporates intentional CD skips and jagged pulses into a sweet, swirling melody.|