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SECRET MACHINES

Secret Machines

Secret Machines - 2023 Reissue

    Originally released in 2008, Secret Machines highly acclaimed self-titled third album has been remastered by Simon Scott (Slowdive) and is released on their TSM Recordings imprint. The album includes a revamped version of "The Fire Is Waiting," featuring Tony Visconti on recorder.

    Speaking on "The Fire Is Waiting," Brandon Curtis wrote: "When we recorded the demo for this song, everyone told us it was too long. We decided it wasn't long enough. Sometimes you wait for the fire. Sometimes the fire waits for you."

    Secret Machines helped define the rock sound of the 00's, alongside contemporaries Interpol, Spiritualized, and TV on the Radio. Their 2006 release Ten Silver Drops won them further critic love and the attention of David Bowie, who became a serious fan. With sprawling arrangements occasionally pushing the 9 minute mark, their grandiose sound was alternately labelled as prog, space rock, and occasionally shoegaze. In 2010 their unreleased fourth LP was put on pause, and as time marched on, with no official breakup announcement, fans were left wondering if they'd ever hear from the band again. What should have been their follow up to this 2008 s/t, "The Moth The Lizard & The Secret Machines" is also being released for the first time simultaneously.

    TRACK LISTING

    Disc: 1
    1 The Fire Is Waiting
    2 Last Believer, Drop Dead
    3 Have I Run Out
    4 Underneath The Concrete
    Disc: 2
    1 Now You're Gone
    2 Atomic Heels
    3 The Walls Are Starting To Crack
    4 I Never Thought To Ask

    Secret Machines

    The Moth, The Lizard & The Secret Machines

      Much like a frantic movie about "unfinished business" or "the one that got away," Secret Machines spent the past few years finally putting the finishing touches on what should have been their fourth LP. Long regarded as a lost album, The Moth, The Lizard and the Secret Machines was actually put on pause in 2010 and massaged in the aftermath of 2020's return-to-form record Awake in the Brain Chamber. This essentially makes it the missing link between that effort's brash pop songs and 2008's sorely overlooked self-titled LP.

      "If you listen to them in order," says singer/multi-instrumentalist Brandon Curtis, "Awake in the Brain Chamber is basically a reaction to the Moth record - very tight and verse/chorus/verse/chorus rather than loose, sprawling and unconventional."

      One key reference point of the Moth sessions was something Garza and Curtis bonded over back in their early days: the Buddhist philosophy of "first thought, best thought." A guiding principle of everyone from Beat poet Allen Ginsberg to downtown icon Arthur Russell, it's the idea that you're better off cutting riffs, beats and chords straight to tape than arranging or composing anything concrete beforehand. In other words, it's music made of fleeting moments and memories rather than rearranged verses and melodies - about as pure as a creative endeavor can be. Their long-awaited fourth LP is full of winding ear worms and hummable hooks, from its fearless, thunderstruck opener ("There's No Starting Over") and the Fripp & Eno-esque outro of "Crucifixion Time" to the broken-hearted balladry of "Run Out the Silver Light" and the sombre instrumental sequence that is "Last One Out."

      TRACK LISTING

      1. There's No Starting Over
      2. I Think It's Light Outside
      3. You Want It Worse
      4. Even Out The Overflow
      5. Last One Out
      6. The Answer
      7. Crucifixion Time
      8. Run Out The Silver Light
      9. The Finalizer

      Secret Machines

      Now Here Is Nowhere

        This is powerful stuff, especially if you like your rock to disorientate you. Locked into churning grooves but always tuneful, you could lump these in with the Nu Prog heads because this is certainly psychedelic. It's shifting, spatial heavy music.


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