RUBIDIUM

Well, apparently the UK has pumped out yet another excellent prog rock band. What is it with that place? Maschine is a band that has been in the making for several years, as they have some connections to The Tangent, among other bands. You'd think this is a super-group or something the way they got these young musicians together, but I can say with confidence that all the hard work has paid off quite well.

Maschine is a tough band to describe musically. They display characteristics of prog metal and heavy prog, but not really. They have a dark side to them, but then they break out into a salsa song. They are heavy, yet melodious and delicate; technical, yet atmospheric. It's definitely an original sound that features prominent male vox with an excellent female backing singer, yet sometimes these two singers switch dominant roles. Overall, I'd just call them eclectic: Everything from salsa and other ethnic styles to straight-up technical jams are present here, and I think this album is all the better for it.

Maschine's debut album, 'Rubidium', has a way of taking you by surprise. One moment you'll be soaking in an ambiance that exudes beauty, but then the music will swing around to an awesome, bass-driven celebration of technical feats. Again and again, I was impressed with this group's ability to change styles, signatures, and tempos all in the blink of an eye. While this is a new band, these guys are anything but amateurs. If I had to choose one stand-out musician, it would be Daniel Mash, the bass guitarist. This album might feature the bass performance of 2013, even with amazing offerings from Riverside and Votum this year. The bass here is always interesting, and often swings around in the background to knock you in the teeth a minute later. Don't get me wrong, though: The rest of the musicians are outstanding; as the drummer pounds away, the guitarist brings soulful solo after solo, and the keyboardist brings a sweeping, sometimes electronic, vibe to the music.

I think 'Rubidium' is a bit of a breath of fresh air, but not just because of it's unique, eclectic sound. There is no concept to the album. Now, I love concept albums like you wouldn't believe, but it is slightly refreshing to hear an album that features a simple selection of tracks that were written about various situations in the life of the singer, Luke Machin (the mastermind here). So, we get tracks about lost love, health problems, and other very relatable issues. I do feel that Luke is the weakest part of the puzzle here, as his vocals are only slightly above average. There are even some weird attempts at harsh vocals, such as on "Venga", that come across as punk. He is at his strongest when joining in harmonies with the rest of the group.

Hold on, though, because Maschine is about to catch everyone's attention. Their combination of melody, technical prowess, personal story-telling, and simply original style has produced an excellent debut album in 'Rubidium'. Keep your eye on this group, as I'm sure they're destined for great things.

This is one of those complete albums that characterise progressive music, nevertheless, this sense of unity is not given by being a conceptual album but rather by the quality and feeling of the music. Rubidium consists of nine songs, the shortest being close to six minutes, thought don't get me wrong, they don't feel forcibly long.

Rubidium starts of with 'The Fallen', it seems the band decided to put this song as the beginning of the album as a sample of what they can do. It includes different paces and styles. It's worth noting the superb atmosphere in its last two minutes.

'Cubixstro' is the first highlight of the album, a classic progressive song, this could be a good song to get to know the band. It includes the best bass composition of the album, usually this is a 'guitar driven' album, thanks to Luke Machin, but this song feels more like a 'bass driven' one, great job of Daniel Mash. It also features some female voice parts by keyboardist Georgia Lewis, it finishes with a superb game of voices between Luke and Georgia.

'Invincible' starts with acoustic guitar part which shows a musical maturity that initially made me think this was a veteran band. By the way, it includes some flute parts that add to the progressive feeling of the album.

'Eyes' is my personal favourite. The band decided to divided into two parts but it really is one 14 minutes song, perhaps related with the fact that the first single is an edited version of the first part (it's worth checking out the home made video). Best vocal work of Luke and Georgia and great guitar solos, one with acoustic guitar at the end of the first part and one electric guitar at the beginning of the second one.

'Chains' starts strikingly similar to Porcupine Tree's 'Time Flies'. A good, powerful and clean work of drums here by'James Stewart.

It was hard to decide between four and five starts (a 4.5 compromise?). A great debut album for these UK guys, and definitely one of my personal favourite albums of 2013, but I still see room for improvement for them, specially Luke's vocal parts. The band grows stronger in an interplay of voices between Luke and Georgia, and I would like to see Georgia singing more, for example a song with her in the main vocals. Maschine is a band which we should definitely pay attention in the future.

Luke Machin, whom one might know from his brilliant guitar contributions on Andy Tillison's The Tangent albums since 2011's 'COMM', turns out to be not only a truly great guitarist, but as this album proves, also an excellent composer with a unique vision.

Maschine's debut album 'Rubidium' surprises and impresses on many levels. The compositions are focused, the performances by all top notch and the variety in arrangement and style demonstrate great influences and years of maturing. But most importantly, this record manifests a unique voice of its own.

The album starts off with Synth lead 'Fallen'. The song presents many facettes that represent Maschine's general sound on 'Rubidium'. A memorable main guitar riff of heavier nature leads to the first verse, sung in harmony by Luke and keyboard player Georgia Lewis. This opener doesn't stay in any conventional structure but departs straight away into rhythmical and harmonic complexities, mainly driven by guitar and Douglas Hamer's exciting and well-versed drumming. Just when the guitar riffing and pattern changing seems to become restless the composition takes a turn for the calm and closes with a dreamy yet highly virtuoso guitar solo, reminiscent of Allan Holdsworth's fluid technique.

The album continues down this path of heavily distorted passages mixed with soft touches of sheer beauty and choruses that stick. Cubixtro finally introduces a slightly jazzier side to the disc. Rhythmical guitar work in latin fashion pushes to another beautiful verse shared by Luke and Georgia. The chorus, of danceable and romantic nature, reoccurs several times throughout the tune, but continuously goes through elemental changes in arrangement and instrumental execution. There is no stagnating. To finish it off, a bombastic riff prepares the stage for another short and exciting solo by Luke, suddenly ending with a computer programmed beat and catchy chant by Georgia.

Most songs on this album peak outside of the box at some point or another and display a great variety of moods and styles. On 'invincible' Luke displays beautiful acoustic guitar work and shares the stage with Marie-Eve de Gaultier's fluid flute lines (she is now the current keyboard player and vocalist of MASCHINE). At this point the composition demonstrates the strong influence of 70's progressive rock pioneers on Luke Maschine's muse.

Venga might be the most straight forward sounding track, filled with strong guitar riffs, slapping bass lines from Daniel Mashal and an excitingly jumpy verse. Toward the end, layers of rhythmically ever changing guitar strokes let Luke's love for Sweden's Pain of Salvation show.

The album concludes with the two-part suite 'Eyes'. No need to go into further detail here because it stays the exciting mix of ingredients all previous pieces demonstrated. Focused, exciting, heavy then soft and instrumentally very accomplished.

The Special Edition of 'Rubidium' comes with two bonus tracks that can keep up with the high level exhibited afore. Yes, Rubidium is truly a debut one does not come by very often. It demonstrates mature selecting and deciding on what to add or leave out, where to go and when to stop. The very raw and dynamic production gives this album an edge many of Maschine's contemporaries, who tend to over-compress their works in the mastering process these days, could profit from, too.

Give this ride a try. It's fresh, it's original and it's here to stay!

As a prog fan from the early seventies, I sometimes have difficulty in appreciating some of the modern prog bands. However, Maschine's 'Rubidium' is one of the best I have heard for a long time. While it is classed as progressive metal, I would suggest that it would be more suited to the 'eclectic' sub-genre. The music is metal-based but has jazz and Canterbury influences, and has a wide range of moods and tempos, often within the same song.

There is excellent guitar work throughout, and an upbeat tone to it all. The tracks are long enough to allow experimentation, and yet still retain interest. Definitely my favourite album of 2013.

They say to never judge a book by its cover. I'm going to say, "Never judge an album by its opening track," because after hearing the opener to Maschine's debut, Rubidium, I was about ready to start track skipping. But I hung in there, and I'm glad I did. Maschine, the new band by the young and former guitar player of The Tangent, is quite a unique group. Initially they give off the impression of 'prog-metal,' but after a few tracks you realize that the picture they paint is quite distinct. While much of Luke's guitar playing has a sort of prog metal style, you'll notice that his done is anything but prog metal; it's quite lightly distorted in fact, creating a sort of non- conventional approach to what is at times, conventional prog metal riffing. But that's just a small part of it. In reality, once you sit through the whole album you realize that the metal is quite spread out. In the end, I'd say there's more jazz here than anything, and between it all is a variety of rock that makes the style of this band quite hard to pinpoint (in a good way. Tracks like "Rubidium" caught my attention with their strong sense of urgency created through quick moving guitars juxtaposed against slow vocals. The jazz parts on this track show great interplay between the bass and guitar and let us take a nice breather and the band caps it off with a rather unexpected, but pleasant, cinematic section and drum solo. If there's anything that you'll immediately notice it's that Luke's guitar solos are to die for. Just check out "Cubixstro" or "Invincible," for instance, where the Steve Vai influences are unashamedly brought to the forefront and Luke displays mastery and taste in his tight control and expression with harmonics, whammy, and human quality phrasing. Track after track, Maschine delivers a high quality blend of jazz and rock, full of great melodies, jaw dropping guitar playing, and a level of unpredictability that makes for an engaging listen. Despite the fact that I felt that at times there were sections of songs that were notably less awesome than others, Maschine delivers a strong debut that should grab our attention and make us say, "pay attention to these guys and let's see where they go from here."