Thief released their new album

Dementia is a thief. It robs its victims piece by piece of their memory, identity, family and friends, and often enough even their human dignity. On their fourth full-length album, Bleed, Memory Los Angeles-based electronic experimentalists Thief explore the theme of ‘memory’ both lyrically and musically. This theme runs as a bold dotted line throughout the album. The solo project’s mastermind, Dylan Neal, got inspiration for this album after witnessing his father’s dementia… Also, his transition from bouts of forgetfulness and confusion to acute episodes of false memories, delusions, visions, and strange behavior.

This makes Bleed, Memory a very personal creation and the experience has led Neal to question his own memories. Also, explore how they shape his identity and reality. Memories are not just the stories we tell ourselves and others and this is evident in Neal‘s comparison of them to ghosts. Although they are not physically present and cannot be touched, they still manifest and frighten those who believe in them. These ‘ghosts’ are also reflected in the music on this album. The cover art, also ties into the concept. This re-painting of El Greco‘s The Tears of Saint Peter by Joseba Eskubi with a wraith-like, sorrowful saint almost resembling a sepulchral memory.

Once again, the backbone of Thief is made up of sampled sacred chant music. Some were sampled from crate digging, and some recorded at various orthodox churches. These samples got stretched, cut, mangled, morphed, and pitched to function like its own ethereal instrument. Neal deliberately designed Bleed, Memory to sound haunted. One of the techniques that he used to achieve this effect is ‘granular synthesis’. The more prominent use of granular synthesis on this record means that samples got split into small blips of audio, barely exceeding 100 milliseconds. These blips – or grains – loop extremely fast and can be layered on top of each other with added manipulation of speed, phase, volume, and frequency, among other parameters.

This unique approach, amalgamating musical elements from ambient, industrial, choral music, black metal, and trip-hop, among other influences, into a new sonic experience, has long granted Thief a cult status among the initiated. Although the studio project operates strictly on a solo-basis to this day, there is also another incarnation as a live entity with a physical band. Performing live has probably played a role in setting Neal on a more song-based course, which is also audible on Bleed, Memory.

Before causing a stir among connoisseurs of fascinating new music with Thief, Neal had already made an impact as a musician! He’s been playing hammered dulcimer in San Francisco-based experimental black metal outfit Botanist… To which, however, he continues to contribute even after having parted ways amicably.

Eager to explore new sonic dimensions, Neal composed and released Thieves Hymn in D Minor (2016), Map of Lost Keys (2019), and The 16 Deaths of My Master (2021)  under the banner of Thief. His music draws inspiration from groundbreaking acts like Portishead and Ulver. Critics have also detected traces of Tool, Nine Inch Nails, and Tears For Fears in Thief‘s sound.

There is always much more to explore on a Thief album than meets the eye. The album title pays homage to Vladimir Nabokov’s autobiography, Speak, Memory. Also, the mention of what the Irish literary giant James Joyce termed ‘Prankquean’ holds even greater significance. This ‘character’ from Finnegans Wake makes recurrent appearances on Bleed, Memory, serving as a female entity that imparts mostly painful yet necessary lessons.

Neal once more recorded and mixed most of the album in his apartment. For the mastering he enlisted John Greenham , who  has received three Grammy Awards in 2019 that honored his mastering for Billie Eilish.

With Bleed, Memory, Thief delivers a dark yet beautiful artistic contemplation of a terrible affliction. Simultaneously, it conveys anger, melancholy, sorrow, and loss as a Gesamtkunstwerk (synthesis of all arts) lyrically, musically, and visually. Beware… this sonic ghost will haunt the memories of its listeners!

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