Album Review: Secret Machines - Secret Machines

Secret Machines are back, this time with an eponymous, self-released follow up to 2006's Ten Silver Drops. The pop sensibilities have lost out to a heavier sound, more reminiscent of the glorious Now Here Is Nowhere, yet the sure scale of some of Ten Silver Drops' larger moments (the lovely 'Alone, Jealous & Stones') are maintained.

The effect is an album that feels like one-step-back to Ten Silver Drops' two-steps-forward but trust BlackPlastic when we say this is a good thing. The slight lack of unified direction that album suffered from is no longer a problem. What is left is a focused, taught album of progressive rock tracks, be it the space opera of 'I Never Thought To Ask' or the psychotic breakdown of 'The Walls Are Starting To Crack', that will make you feel like you are living in a David Bowie movie.

The self-released aspect may make this trickier to come across but it's still available via the usual channels (iTunes, Amazon) and, as with the rest of the Secret Machines catalogue, it is well worth picking up. Nobody does epics on this scale and as the closing 'The Fire Is Waiting' kicks in the band sound more like a rocket ship departing the launch pad than any of their earth-bound contemporaries.

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