One of the most unabashedly shoegaze-y albums in recent memory, Machine Is My Animal is the product of two collaborators split between Adelaide and Sydney. City Of Satellites’ Jarrod Manual and Thomas Diakomichalis have tuned their ears to the expansive dream-pop of the classic 4AD roster and the likeminded M83, relishing the elastic reach of spidery rhythms and unmoored melodies. And yet the defining feature is guitarist/keyboardist Manual’ room-filling lead vocals, so soft and high you’d swear it’s a woman singing. Diakomichalis, meanwhile, plays drums and synths, produces, and is responsible for the album art. Although less of an immediate presence than Manual’ voice, his spacious, left-field drumming is the source of continued fascination.
Lyrics function here as just another in the band’ range of lush strokes, offering further thematic shading but not so much narrative. The album’ opening “BMX’ references BMX Bandits and cites ‘space invaders’, but the vocals are too haunting to approach cheesiness. And as with every song here, the details only feed into a convincing whole. “Control’ summons bygone synths that wouldn’ be out of place on the new Yeasayer album, while wobbly guitar takes hold of “Skeletons’. “Narrow Bend In Time’ then has a more urgent tug to it, at least by the band’ lethargic standards. Despite being buried at track seven of nine, the single “Stranger Than Fiction’ is direct and succinct, a three-minute calling card that jumps out from the more drift-minded songs around it.
That song’ standout lyric -“The night crawls in around me†– befits the entire album. The instrumental “Willje Sleep’ recalls another plane of existence, and the wavering “Victor! Burn City Lights’ doesn’ rush in the least. The title track especially is a kind of vortex, slowing one’ thought process to bring it in step with the band’ glacial pace. As much as City Of Satellites rely on heady unreality, though, everything in the duo’ arsenal is used sparingly and to significant effect. There’ an almost austere sheen to Machine Is My Animal, such that we’re never bombarded but gently seduced and swayed. It’s a beautiful feeling.
Doug Wallen
