Memorex Memories: Lo-Fi Dreamwave Drenched in Tape Hiss
There’s something strange and beautiful about memory. It fades, distorts, glows in sepia tones. And sometimes, it gets pressed onto magnetic tape and reimagined as synthwave dreams. That’s more or less the vibe you get from Memorex Memories – the musical moniker of Sean Harte, a Glaswegian artist who builds soundtracks for moments that might never have happened, but feel like they did.
Sean doesn’t shout about who he is. You won’t see paparazzi shots of him exiting a club at 3 AM in neon shoulder pads (although, honestly, we’d respect it). He’s more like that friend who curates the best playlists, hands you a mixtape, and then disappears into the fog. Cool, quiet, and devastatingly good at what he does.
So how did this memory-maker become one of the unsung heroes of the synthwave world?
Let’s rewind.
Back to Tape: The Origins of Memorex Memories
Before he was Memorex Memories, Sean Harte released music under the name Mr Sunshine. His 2015 EP Climbing Green Hill was more lo-fi daydream than neon noir—like looking at old childhood photos through a dusty View-Master. But that release planted the seed.
Soon after, Sean traded sunny hilltops for dusk-lit cityscapes, giving birth to Memorex Memories. The name itself is a love letter to analog. For anyone who’s ever made a mixtape—or fished a pencil out of a drawer to rewind one—"Memorex" brings a certain warmth, a certain click. It’s nostalgia that hums and hisses just right.
It wasn’t long before he found his tribe: synthwave heads, chillsynth fans, and lovers of the “datawave” subgenre—a blend of retrofuturism, ambient textures, and VHS fuzz. His tracks didn’t just play in the background; they pulled you in like dreams that forgot to end.
A Sound That Feels Like Memory
If you’ve ever listened to Memorex Memories and thought, “Wow, this feels like the soundtrack to a movie I don’t remember watching,” you’re not alone. His music carries that sort of odd familiarity—like rediscovering a favorite jacket from the ‘80s that somehow still fits perfectly (which, incidentally, you can find at Newretro.Net… just saying).
Let’s talk influences. You’ll find no shortage of electronic royalty in Sean’s sonic DNA:
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Aphex Twin: for the mood swings and the genius-level layering.
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Boards of Canada: for the dreamy melancholia and Scottish soul connection.
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Brian Eno: the godfather of ambient, obviously.
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Squarepusher: because glitch and groove go together like VHS and tracking errors.
But Sean takes those influences and adds his own flavor. A little VHS haze, a dash of late-night introspection, and a beat that sounds like it’s walking home alone after missing the last train.
The gear list is as retro as it gets—Korg MS-10, Roland JP-08, TB-3, TR-505, Casio SK-1, FL Studio, and even a Tascam Porta One tape deck. That’s right, we’re not just talking tape, we’re recording on it. And yeah, that probably explains why his stuff sounds like you’re listening through a camcorder left on overnight in 1987.
The Releases: From City Streets to Purple Skies
Over the years, Memorex Memories has released a collection of albums and EPs that read like chapters of a retro-futuristic diary.
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In Motion EP (2019): This one feels like driving a DeLorean through a rainy neon-lit street. It’s kinetic but moody—like movement through a dreamscape.
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Pictures of Purple Skies (2019): A full-length LP that feels like a memory. Warm, textured, cinematic. Put this on during golden hour and just watch your thoughts slow-dance.
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The Life of Riley (2020): This one’s more introspective, soft and sentimental. It feels like that moment in a film when the main character finally “gets it.”
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Recursion EP (2021) and In Motion I & II (2022) continued the journey—refining the vibe, expanding the palette. It’s less about reinventing the wheel and more about putting fuzzy tires on it and seeing how far you can ride into the sunset.
Standout tracks? Oh yeah:
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Curious Alice – Like falling down a lo-fi rabbit hole.
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A Way Home – If nostalgia were an elevator, this track would be the music in it.
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Thanks for Listening – A subtle meta-title that doubles as a wink to his loyal fans.
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Ambervision (feat. Hotel Pools) – The kind of collab that makes you wish they had a whole album together.
The Aesthetic: VHS Dreams, Coastal Evenings, and Datawave Drift
Everything Memorex Memories does—down to the artwork, the track titles, the mood—is calibrated to feel like a memory. It’s a vibe he’s perfected. His music doesn’t scream for attention. It invites you in with a nod and a quiet "remember this?"
A typical session with his tracks might involve:
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Late-night browsing on a CRT screen
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City lights flickering from an old apartment window
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Driving nowhere in particular, but with purpose
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A coastal walk with tape hiss in your headphones
And that’s the beauty of it. You don’t listen to Memorex Memories. You live in it.
Style Meets Sound: A Little About Us
At Newretro.Net, we totally get the vibe Sean is going for. His music hits the same aesthetic notes we aim to capture in our designs: timeless cool with retro soul. Whether it’s our denim jackets that look straight out of a lost ‘80s action movie, or our VHS sneakers that wouldn’t be out of place in a pixelated arcade scene—if Memorex Memories made clothes, they’d probably look a lot like ours.
So yeah—if you’re vibing to his music, you might want to check your closet. Or ours. No pressure. Just a nudge from one retro-lover to another.
Okay, you’re still here. Good. That means either:
A) You’re vibing with this synth-drenched nostalgia trip
B) You fell asleep on your keyboard with a Memorex track looping in the background
C) You’re just a really, really big fan of ambient Scottish synthwave
Either way, welcome back.
Let’s keep spinning this tape.
Life After the Loop: From Recursion to Reverence
By the time Recursion EP dropped in 2021, Memorex Memories had settled comfortably into the hearts of synthwave and chillsynth fans. But don’t mistake comfort for complacency—this wasn’t just more of the same.
Recursion deepened the story. It explored time, loops, the way we revisit old feelings like reruns. Each track hummed like an unanswered question from the past. It was sonic déjà vu in the best possible way.
Then came In Motion I & II in 2022—a return to the kinetic spirit of his earlier work but with more polish, more confidence. Think of it as the remastered version of a cult classic. Familiar mood, upgraded hardware.
But Sean wasn’t just releasing music. He was building a community.
The Collab Game: Friends in the Datawave
One thing that sets Memorex Memories apart? His collaborations. He’s not some mysterious wizard in a tape-covered tower—he’s plugged into a network of like-minded artists.
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Hotel Pools: A match made in vapor heaven. Their track Ambervision is the kind of piece you wish you could bathe in. It’s warm, echoey, and sounds like a memory someone else had, but you still get misty-eyed over it.
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Electronic Gems and Stratford Ct.: Both major curators in the chill synth and aesthetic scenes, these collectives helped bring Memorex Memories to a wider audience. Think of them like the underground tastemakers who know a good analog dream when they hear one.
In fact, when the Paradise Arcade Podcast dubbed Sean a “rising star of Datawave” in 2022, it felt more like a statement of fact than hype. The guy had been quietly leading the scene with tape-deck grace and zero ego.
And yet—he still hadn’t hit his ceiling.
The Live Element: Stage Meets Silence
Now, synthwave isn’t always a live-performance-friendly genre. It’s ambient, introspective, and sometimes better suited to midnight car rides than crowded clubs. But Sean took the leap.
His live debut in 2019 was small but intimate, drawing in the kind of fans who show up early and still buy CDs. You know the type. (Respect.)
Then came his feature at the Edinburgh Festival of Sound in 2020, where he blended performance with interview. It was less of a rock show and more like a documentary being filmed in real time—with arpeggiators.
And now? Word on the street (or at least on niche synth forums) is that he’s working on his first proper full-length LP—the kind that takes everything he’s learned and tapes it all together into something cinematic.
Yeah, it’s safe to say the anticipation is real.
The Unspoken Narratives: Why His Music Feels Like It Means Something
There’s something about Memorex Memories that goes beyond the music itself. It’s not just the synths or the nostalgia. It’s the way everything feels connected, even when it’s not.
His tracks are full of these little micro-narratives—clues, callbacks, motifs. One synth line might echo something you heard three albums ago. A beat might mimic a forgotten voicemail tone. A melody might almost resolve, then drift away, like a memory you can’t quite get back.
You don’t need to know the story to feel it.
And maybe that’s the point.
His work speaks to:
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People who miss places they’ve never been
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Late-night thinkers
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Dreamers with bad sleep schedules
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Anyone who’s ever felt nostalgic for something they can’t name
It's more than nostalgia. It’s emotional archaeology. You dig through his music like you’re uncovering parts of yourself.
Okay, But What Should You Wear While Doing That?
Glad you asked. Listen, if you're going to spend your evenings dissolving into foggy synthscapes and daydreaming about chrome-laced futures, you might as well look the part.
That’s where we (hi, Newretro.Net) come in.
We're not trying to distract from Sean's vibe—we're dressing for it.
Picture this:
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A black leather jacket that feels like it was pulled straight from a ‘90s anime dystopia.
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Retro sunglasses that block out reality and let you stare wistfully at purple skies.
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High-top sneakers that could moonlight as backup props in Blade Runner.
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Watches that don’t just tell time—they tell era.
You don’t have to dress like it’s 1988. But if you want to feel like the soundtrack to Pictures of Purple Skies is playing behind you as you walk into the room? We got you.
It’s not cosplay. It’s just taste.
The Memorex Legacy (So Far)
From a bedroom in Glasgow to playlists around the world, Memorex Memories has built something meaningful. Not just a sound, but a space—a sonic refuge for anyone who likes their music drenched in memory, wonder, and just a little bit of tape hiss.
And while other artists chase trends or drop singles like disposable content, Sean is building something more timeless. Something that could be playing in the background of your first kiss, your last drive, or your next big memory.
That’s the power of nostalgia when it’s done right. It doesn’t live in the past. It makes the present feel cinematic.
So the next time you find yourself alone at night, scrolling old photos, watching the city lights blur through your window—hit play on a Memorex Memories track.
And maybe throw on that jacket too. The one that makes you feel like the main character in your own VHS daydream.
You know where to find it.
And now you know what to listen to.
Newretro.Net – wear the past, live the future.
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