Maschine - 'Rubidium'

Good to see a solid new young band on the block.

Guitarist and vocalist Luke Machin formed Maschine in 2009 at the Brighton Institute of Modern music. This was after practising up to ten hours a day from the age of eight which has clearly led to his well-developed musical muscle memory - Machin evidently has total mastery of the fretboard.

The songs on the album are prog based and instrumentally top heavy with vocals thrown in sporadically; the centrepiece is clearly Machin´s frenetic playing. It has to be said that in places they are also quite jazzy and atmospheric, especially when accompanied by Georgia Lewis on keyboards. Lewis also shares vocals with Machin and they work best when singing in unison, especially on the Latin-groove of ´Cubixstro´. This song also shows off the prowess of the rhythm unit comprising Daniel Mash on bass and the eclectic drumming of James Stewart. Elliott Fuller also appears on the album on guitar for name checking completeness.



There are seven songs on the album (two of which are ´Eyes Pt. 1 and 2´) plus two bonus tracks. Each song is allowed the freedom of time (each about 8 minutes long) and meander somewhat as a result. Admittedly, there is payback in most cases, notably the spacey start of ´Venga´ morphing into a hard-hitting industrial guitar outro.

Maschine´s ´Rubidium´ is a worthy progressive rock album which includes a number of musical journeys into the world of lightning fast guitar solos, jazzy interludes and the inevitable unusual time signatures and key changes.

Good to see a solid new young band on the block.

Rob McKenzie