Machine Love - "Living In The Future"
(Mp3.com DAM CD, 2001)
Machine Love - "Living In The Future"
(Mp3.com DAM CD, 2001)
From Aural Innovations #20 (July 2002)
Machine Love are Vincent James on keyboards, percussion, and electronic instruments and Tad Ro on acoustic and electric guitar. On this album, there are vocals by Melissa Dougherty, Eva Christensen and Lori Ottino. Machine Love have released four albums up to date and to be truthful I have no idea where this one comes in order of releases. They term they music Spacerock/Triphop, and I can hear the Triphop but absolutely no Spacerock whatsoever.
"Living in the Future" is very mellow/ambient throughout its eleven tracks with great production and some great sounds littering its pieces. It is predominantly more in the mould of The Orb with very Eat Static sounding sounds; it grooves like The Orb in certain aspects and moves in the Future Sound of London vein. I would say that FSOL play a big part in inspiration to Machine Love. "Last Days on Earth" is very much like The Orb's "Little Fluffy Clouds" in style and sound. "Olivine" has some good guitar work on it. "Head Map" has some nice Rick Wright Animals style lead riff sounds working their way over a nice laid back almost Dub/Reggae styled tune, very Ozric Tentacles sounding. "Atomic Nectar" has a sound that is very much like Transonic, which is probably why I like it. Great bass line and not too dance inspired in the framework of the piece. The two I have just mentioned to me are the best of the album.
There is some good guitar work on this album as well as some good synth work. Together they produce very atmospheric pieces that roll into one another with ease. The ambience is very much in the laid back groove of FSOL and it would not be out of place in chill out rooms around the globe. As far as this type of music goes Machine Love stand up there rightly alongside a host of bands judging them on this album alone. The only thing that I do not like personally is the drum patterns. Most are mellow and quite laid back which I do not mind that much. I just prefer a person rather than a machine to perform the beats. If this genre of music is your cup of tea then I strongly suggest looking into this band. If you like 'Dead Cities' by Future Sound of London then you will love 'Living in the Future' by Machine Love.
For more information you can visit the Machine Love web site at: http://www.dreamspy.com/.
Contact via snail mail c/o Vincent James; DreamSpy Net Works; 2342 Shattuck Avenue #336; Berkeley, CA 94704.
Reviewed by Albert Pollard