Background
As you may have read in my previous reviews of this Metropolis masterpiece, The M Machine, formerly Pance Party, are an electronic duo (used to be trio) based in San Fransisco, California. They made their name known when their debut EP "Promise Me A Rose Garden/Glow" was released on OWSLA, and remained #2 on Beatport for an entire week. A teaser for their "Metropolis EP," now split into two parts, went viral. The first part, "Metropolis, Pt. I" released in April 2012, with the second installment, "Metropolis, Pt. II," releasing almost a year later in February 2013. "Metropolis" as a whole is based on the sci-fi film "Metropolis" and tells the story of the dystopian city of Metropolis. The B-Sides to Metropolis were just released the week of August 11, 2015, over two years after the two part album released and three after the first installment came out. "Metropolis: The B-Sides" features six tracks in the classic The M Machine style that didn't fit into the two parts of the actual album. The album artwork for the B-Sides is a combination of the album artworks for all the parts of Metropolis and the album artwork for "Promise Me A Rose Garden/Glow."
Review
Listen to "Metropolis: The B-Sides"
"Metropolis: The B-Sides" may be two years behind the original work, but it lacks none of the creative insight that The M Machine never fail to bring, despite their more recent work being underground deep house. The B-Sides start off fresh with "Happy Land," which is really anything but, music-wise at least. It's got a heavy beat and a strange zipping wobble that drive hard and could easily find a place in an underground club scene. If four minutes of the same chords were your thing, "Diamonds" would be the perfect track for you. "Diamonds" doesn't really have much going for it; it gets repetitive real quick. "Specific Hell," though, is the next track, and it's anything but. It starts off with a rhythmic drum groove that transitions into a crazy, octave-jumping synth riff which builds as the track runs its seven-minute course. "Radiolight" is strangely vivid in its portrayal of a broken radio shining beacon of hope in some dark cave. In reality, it's just some majestic, open chords over a spacey drum beat, but it does a good job of presenting an idea an an image. The song itself isn't that interesting, but it is a nice cinematic song. Speaking of cinematic songs, "Space Design" is exactly that. There are no drums to be heard anywhere in the song, it's just the same chords in differing layers with interesting, albeit strange at times, sounds gracing the vast soundscape. The space dies as the instruments fade out and just a toybox is left. "When It's Gone," the last song on the B-Sides, is a nice slow house track worthy of a spot on a Madeon record. It features unaccredited vocals from who I believe is actually one of the members of the group, but I can't find any sources for that. Either way, the vocals are really catchy, although not perfectly clean, and they sit atop some chords in a really interesting synth.
Even two years later, "Metropolis: The B-Sides" still brings fresh the memories of the massive work that is Metropolis. There have been six tracks released, and while that's technically the last of them, The M Machine plans to "package it all together with some bonus tracks/extras/instrumentals and give that away as soon as its ready," according to their Facebook page. It's been two months since they said that, and I consider "Metropolis: The B-Sides" to be completed, as "When It's Gone," the last track on the EP, is the "the last of the soundcloud b-sides," again, right from the members via Facebook. There's nothing quite like The M Machine's distinct electro house sound, and for the first taste in two years, it's like a sliver of jerky to a starving man. There are a few gems on the B-Sides, and they really shine through to any fans of The M Machine that put out Metropolis. 7/10
Sources
Wikipedia | The M Machine
No comments:
Post a Comment