Friday 9 March 2012

The Machine Room - Love From A Distance

Even with well over a month's notice, here I am, only managing to pop a review up the week of its release... and the end of the week at that!  So it seems that once again, my reviewing cogs have been frantically turning.  Unfortunately, they've not been attached to anything!  But, as one machine room (Yes, this is the path I'm going down for my introduction) has slowed to a crawl, another more-musically-minded one has been sufficiently greased and keeps churning out track-after-track of faultless music.  If you're a regular reader, you'll know that out-and-out reviews are a bit of a rarity on Kowalskiy (and the way this one's been going it may well be my last).  So you know when I do one, the release must be pretty special.  Besides, it's even rarer that a release, and indeed a band, of this calibre come along.

It's thanks to their previous two singles, Girly and Camino de Soda, that I'm a fully-fledged member of The Machine Room's fan club.  For this, their follow-up, debut EP Love From A Distance, the aural pleasure is at an all-time high.   It all kicks off with Cost of Progress, it's urgent, pulsing sirens, pre-warning us of the foursome's mind-blowing intent.  The remaining three minutes of the song can only be described as relentless.  Well.. a relentless, mesmerising, half-intricate, half-blur of guitars and drums.  All fantastic!  That's followed up though by my favourite track on the EP, Your Head On The Floor Next Door.  Now, it might be the rhyming of "...away in a manger.../...went down on a stranger.", as the song bursts into life that does it for me, or the slightly more relaxed, upbeat mood coupled with John Bryden's stunning vocals, which fleet effortlessly throughout from a breathy husk to something approaching falsetto.  In reality, it's probably a combination of all of those things, and the fact it's just a fantastic song!

Previous single Camino de Soda has a kinda 'New Order with cowbells' thing going on which I defy anyone to find a problem with... other than lazy reviewing perhaps.   And things are rounded off with the slow-burning, dare-I-say 'epic' Picking Holes which better than any other song, showcases The Machine Room's impressive songwriting credentials.

To be honest though, reading it back, that all sounds a wee bit pish in places so you'd be better off listening for yourself below!    


You can buy Love From A Distance from The Machine Room's Bandcamp or from iTunes.

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