By: David Schultz

The Secret Machines are going to have a hard time living up to their name. Turning heads at the 2005 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, The Machines stood out from the pack breaking through with an incendiary set after having spent close to two years on the road mastering their live show. They recently sat down to be interviewed by David Bowie, one of their most ardent fans, and recently collaborated with Bono on a cover of "I Am The Walrus." Even though their latest and second full-length album, Ten Silver Drops, has been available for download for weeks, The Secret Machines will be celebrating its official release and surely generating even more favorable buzz, kicking off their summer world tour, with in-the-round concerts on each coast.

The Secret Machines formed in Dallas, TX when lead singer/bassist/keyboardist Brandon Curtis and his brother, guitarist Ben Curtis, hooked up with drummer Josh Garza. Honing a style centered on Curtis' throaty vocals and atmospheric synth, his brother's pulsing hypnotic guitar and Garza's crashing, frenzied drums, The Secret Machines winningly combine an industrial crunch with a David Lynchian moody airiness. On their 2004 debut album, Now Here Is Nowhere, they captured the essence of a restless generation, possessing an untapped and unfocused reserve of energy, ready to explode unless productively channeled. The trio followed their debut with their second EP The Road Leads Where It's Led (2002's September 000 being their first) containing the electrifying title song as well as a droning but captivating cover of Bob Dylan's "Girl From The North Country" and a gloriously electrified romp through Van Morrison's meditative "Astral Weeks."

To get an idea of where The Secret Machines are coming from, take a listen to "First Wave Intact," the nine-minute opus that opens Now Here Is Nowhere. If that song doesn't scratch you where you itch, then The Secret Machines may not be the band for you. In fact, if "First Wave Intact" doesn't grab you by your musical cojones, maybe modern rock isn't the thing for you either.

The high octane industrial crunch of the thunderous Now Here Is Nowhere has been restrained on Ten Silver Drops into a more refined pulsing throb. Most notably, Josh Garza's drumming, which can echo John Bonham or Keith Moon at their most hedonistic, has been reined into the realm of controlled fury. The change is not accidental. "Last time we were interested in creating edges in places people don’t normally create edges, like in the low-end frequencies," Garza explains of the difference. "It ended up making the songs kind of two-dimensional and flat. This time we tried to preserve some of the depth and let other things, like melodies, float to the surface."

The songs on Ten Silver Drops derive from the spiritual isolation experienced by the Machines after months of constant touring. Drops' opening track, "Alone, Jealous And Stoned" succinctly embodies that emptiness. Generating pathos tinged with mounting anger, the Machines create a soundtrack for all three states of mind. Consider yourself fortunate if the song's plaintive wail of chorus doesn’t strike a chord somewhere in the dark recesses of your soul. Ten Silver Drops, which only contains eight songs, may be more melancholy than their full length debut but it is no less powerful. The brooding atmosphere of "Daddy's In The Doldrums" contains a more controlled version of the pseudo-early eighties alternative rock that could be their trademark. "Faded Lines," "I Hate Pretending" and "Lightning Blue Eyes" have been well rehearsed during The Machines' endless tour and the locomotive pace of those songs, as well as "All At Once (It's Not Important)" could easily have fit in on Now Here Is Nowhere. "I Want To Know If It's Still Possible" and "1000 Seconds" close the album on a surprisingly dreary note. Both songs sound like outtakes from early Peter Gabriel albums, which while having their place, mismatch with the rest of the album.

The Secret Machines are soon to have one of the most oxymoronic names in modern rock. While their music storms along with an industrial stomp, there's nothing unemotional or mechanical about them. Most importantly, once Ten Silver Drops works its way into the public consciousness, these Machines aren't going to be a secret much longer.

Labels: The Secret Machines