The Emperor Machine: Aimee Tallulah Is Hypnotised

admin on Jan 13th 2005

The funky, frisky collection of analog sounds running through The Emperor Machine’s debut album (a side project of Chicken Lips’ Andy Meecham) is just the kind of thing robotic pimps could strut to. If you can imagine Air with a lot more attitude, scoring the soundtrack to a cheap 70′s sci-fi, you might just begin to be on the right track. Though the straight-ahead, feel-good opener to the album, “The TV Extra Band” sounds like a stuttering version of the Dr. Who theme, it’s the perfect warm up for what is about to come: a stream of non-stop head nodding.

From the glittering, synth-heavy “Linda Looks Good,” laced with flute, to the strobing, sequential title track, Meecham places the listener amidst a lysergic nightlife of cinematic proportions. Thumping rubber bass-lines of just two notes, kitsch phasing and sound-effects, all interact for a definite “cruising at altitude” feel to this album, while bringing a much needed live feel to all things electronica.

Whether it be the sinister drones of the altogether funky “Front Man” swinging by, the computer game-like “Expanding in Reproduction,” or sounds only fit for an action-packed 1980′s helicopter chase scene (“Brains in a Box”), the simple yet addictive grooves scattered throughout make the bass the real winner here, consistently managing to hold things down under quintessentially kooky goings on. Kraut rock has been re-born by throwing it head-first into an antique vision of the future.