Bidnezz

OH FUCK YES. Finally!
Machine Drum is a flagship artist on Merck, my new favorite electronica label. This is his third full release. The older two albums, by the way, are glitch-hop classics, so I can't tell you how excited I am to welcome Machine Drum into KZSU circulation.

Machine Drum crafts abstractly jazzy glitch-hop (super glitchy, broken instrumental hip hop beats). Imagine an even weirder, texturally thicker (and arguably more intellectual) Prefuse 73. Every aspect is heavily cut-up, from the unintelligible vocal samples to the beats to the electronic melodies... kind of like an audio strobe light. If robots had colorful souls and wanted to express themselves, this is the kind of music they’d make.

Track 15 is the illest shit since like, Malaria.
Other favorites include: 3, 9, 13, 21.

- Captain Dee, 11/2004

Noisy ambient interludes: 1, 2, 4, 7, 10, 12, 16, 19
Hard-hitting glitch-hop beats: 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, 15, 17, 21
In-between: 18, 20, 22

Selected Highlights:
1. Loud crashing sustained synths. (1:13)
**3. Vinyl crackling, abstractly jazzy keys, disjointed, absolutely sick beat. (3:21)
*5. Staccato melody and beat, unintelligible distorted hip hop lyrics. The beat is downtempo first, but then it picks up into a fast, drum & bass-ish jam. (4:50)
*6. Heavily cut up, stop & start fuzzy, beat with very cut up singing. Later: pretty sparkling chimes. (3:38)
*8. Funky vibe, in an abstract sense. Infectious "clapping beat" with some nice breaks. At times, spooky ambience floats over. (3:26)
**9. High, flute-ish melody loop playfully interacts with hard-hitting, head-bobbing hip-hop beat and electronics. (4:03)
10. FCC: "Fuck"s. Videogame noises with absurd speech samples. (0:47)
11. Clicking beat, tons of clanky sound effects, cut-up electronic chords. (3:21)
*13. Soulful, super distorted vocals with a jazzy, uptempo, more traditional hip-hop beat. Trippy pieces of melodies. (4:42)
***15. Sleak jazzy chords, stuttered samples. Devastating beat develops halfway through. Sick sick sick!!! How can something this robotic be so soulful?? (5:30)
*17. Fuzzy, almost hopeful chords drop over scurrying beat and goofy notes.
The second half gets funky and playful… in a crazy computer way. (3:19)
18. Slow, quiet beat... like a journey in some secret underground cave. (3:57)
*19. Ambient electronic, ripples that have a transcendental feel. (1:34)
*21. Complex, fast rolling beat over melodic, cheerful fuzz. Bitchin'! (5:07)
22. Surprisingly chill... like the soundtrack to a very bizarre dream. (3:51)