The Nothing Machine — NMTR v1
A quick look at their website (www.thenothingmachine.com) reveals that this first album of theirs is being presented as the work of a collective of scientists secluded in an industrial estate on the outskirts of London and specialising in the field of nuclear fusion. The one-song, 53-minute release, the title of which stands for Nothing Machine Therapy Recordings volume 1, is apparently nothing less than the commitment onto CDr* of their sonic experimentations.
The question, as always, remains: is this a clever marketing ploy (however loosely that term may apply to a scene where selling 100 copies is considered the pinnacle of commercial achievement) or the best idea a bunch of second-rate artists brought up on Star Trek and assorted cultural cornerstones could come up with? Separating the wheat from the chaff is often a perilous – and highly subjective - enterprise when it comes to writing music reviews but I am glad to report that a couple of listens suffice to reveal that the artists, er scientists, at work here at least knew which knobs to twist and how to achieve the desired effects.
And a pretty straightforward affair it is. The music on offer is basically a backdrop of low-end frequencies interspersed with the sort of creaking noises that you’d expect any self-respecting intergalactic shuttle to produce – if they could emit sound at all in an oxygen-free environment, that is. And while some less scrupulous souls might content themselves with keeping a finger firmly entrenched on the left-hand keys of their keyboard of choice for longer than is really necessary in order to disguise an embarrassing lack of compositional talent, not so here. The clever use of dynamics (think movie soundtrack) allows the material to ebb and flow in a very effective way indeed, and the album manages to build up enough of a momentum to warrant repeated listens. It truly feels at times as though one is cruising through ethereal wastes looking at distant planets from the window of a drifting spaceship.
The story wants that these recordings were made so as to allow the researchers working on the Nothing Machine project to spend some time away from it without feeling various symptoms no doubt provoked by overexposure of some sort. And while it certainly won’t revolutionise the genre (precious few albums really do), this first creative outburst by the British collective makes for a convincing enough addition to one’s space ambient collection, next to bands like S.E.T.I., Tholen or Sleep Research Facility, and should prove ideal listening material for late-at-night star-gazing sessions.
* Those who favour a fast-food approach to music listening need not fear, it is also available as a low-priced download.