Places in Between
(dxm-008-dig) Deus ex Musica ©2020
Digital Album released
(dxm-008-cd) Limited Edition CD released
Buy Now links
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Reviews of Places in Between:
it's particularly exciting for me when a band from the past picks up the pieces from where they left off and continues to create something new. it's great.
so this new album is called the places in between and like i said this is their first release in many many years. i will be going through each track on this album and how i feel about it and how awesome it is.
overall this album is really fascinating, interesting, different, mystical, sophisticated, and inspiring. there are a lot of times in this album where summer sounds so much like lisa gerrard from dead can dance which i think is part of what adds to what makes this so mystical sounding. i really love how her voice has matured over the years and it really comes together here. from what i can gather in comparison to other earlier works, they have backed off the rock and post-punk distorted elements just a bit, but it doesn't make it any less engaging. if anything, this is an excellent demonstration of their versatility.
this is really good reading music or road trip music, and some of it is really dancy. i dig. so if you guys are a huge fan of machine in the garden, faith in the muse, dead can dance, and this ascension, this will definitely suit your needs.
-Adrienne LaVey, excerpted from LigeiaResurrected YouTube
Nine years may seem like a considerably long absence for a band, but with Places In Between marking the Machine in the Garden’s ninth studio effort, it’s as if the band never left. As one of the entities that defined an entire generation of atmospheric darkwave and ethereal goth/rock, the duo of Roger Fracé and Summer Bowman certainly have nothing to prove; yet, listening to this new record, it’s certainly clear that a maximum effort was exerted to craft what many fans would consider the Machine in the Garden’s magnum opus.
For instance, a song like “Courage, Power, and Wisdom” plunges the listener into an unsettling miasma of sustained piano reverb and singing, searing guitar phrases atop a growling bass synth, all of which threatens to drown out the mechanical drumbeats, while other album highlights include “A Thousand Years of War” with its ascending layers of synth and vocal chants, the repetitions of “Churning the sea of milk” like a mantra anchored to a slow, penetrating drumbeat reminiscent of The Cure’s Pornography era, or the droning acoustic plucking of “Broken Days,” Bowman’s voice first sinister and then haunting as her harmonies add to the eerily celestial ambience. Other songs present similar arrangements that perhaps run the risk of extremity, particularly where length is concerned, with “Spirit and Image” clocking in a little over 11 minutes as resonant chimes of 12-string electric guitar, bouncy breaks, along with some fine piano accompaniment build a hypnotic soundscape that gradually builds to what perhaps should’ve been a more intense climax. Other songs like “Beyond” and “Ad Astra Per Aspera” bear an almost ‘90s machine/rock vibe from the programmed drum loops under growling guitar and fluid bass lines, while “Orbital” and “O Euchari” best exemplify Bowman’s vocal prowess and recall some of her finest moments from the Mirabilis.
After nine years, there’s a certain relief that comes from an album like Places In Between, proving that the Machine in the Garden has lost none of its creative energy, presenting music that holds true to the established sound with just enough sonic vibrancy for a new audience to be found. From Fracé’s sophisticated instrumentation and refined production to Bowman’s masterful command of lyrical and vocal harmony, the music on Places In Between is sure to please longtime fans of the genre and the band, with just enough aural delight to appease newcomers and nonbelievers alike. Welcome back!
-Ilker Yücel (Ilker81x), ReGen Magazine
There are things that I love in music: a variety in styles, expressive vocals, warm and dark tonalities, an emotional romantic mood and surprising subtleties in the instrumentation. “Places in Between” by The Machine In The Garden has all of these things in abundance.
The album has this fascinating industrial and gothic quality that feels sweaty and driving, sensual even. Synths and guitars are used to either accentuate or completely carry a melody, just as the mood of a track requires it.
The lyrics show a sense of longing, desire and world-weary sadness, that only get reinforced by the abilities of singer Summer Bowman. Her “neutral” voice is warm and soft, but at a moments notice she is able to produce a high modified operatic sound or put a hard edge in her sound that feels cold, impatient and distant.
Something that I really appreciated were the moments when Summer went in a very theatrical direction, vocalizing less like in conventional singing and more like she is acting in a play.
Another element that I really enjoyed is the order of the tracks. Up to the half-way mark, the songs general mood is the aforementioned longing, only for the aptly titled “Courage, Power, and Wisdom” to kick the listener in the gut and deliver an uplifting, soaring mood at the perfect moment in this hour-long journey. Overall, this is an album I can highly recommend people to get into. While it feels big and epic, the entire runtime is full of relatable and honest emotion, presented with truly excellent songwriting and musicianship. It’s great music for hot, sleepless nights and I love it for that!
This was a hard one for me, I didn’t hate it. Didn’t dislike it. Neither was I dismissive nor indifferent. I found some parts of it really excellent, and other parts felt like they almost drift off into musical theater, which is a no-go area for me. (I could be waaay off the mark with that, opinions are like arseholes).
I’m going to concentrate on what I dug and the songs that really stood out. I love the guitars, they aren’t so distorted that all you can hear is harmonics, but just overdrive enough to break up when they need to sonically, they have this Morricone/Pirroni* vibe that really jumps out at me. There’s also a very Hans Zimmer vibe going on with the vocal styling and the percussive/drum composition. Bass guitar has that strong post-punk/Leeds/Manchester metallic warehouse sound that just pins down the core and allows everything else to flow.
When this works for me, it works really well, when it doesn’t, I applaud their vision and musicality. Because that’s what is to be admired here, it isn’t written for me, yet there’s something here for me.
The songs “Underneath”, “Broken Days” and “Courage, Power and Wisdom” all hit different for me. They seem to serve the vocalist more. They feel more realised. Cohesive.
“Broken Days” really struck me. It has a tone that really tickles my fancy, but what really crossed my mind is that it could easily fit on Eoin Mac Ionmhain‘s “I Am Legend” soundtrack.
I do love the trip hop/goth cross-pollination. This album seems to get stronger towards the end. More folk/horror elements? A reallyy mixed bag and impressive. Vocals really do shine on this. If this is your wheelhouse, you will be very happy.
*Ennio Morricone spaghetti western composer/ Marco Pirronione one time Siouxsie Sioux cohort and Adam Ant guitarist and collaborator.
-untidyadmin, Confessions of an Untidy Mind
This week’s album is “Places in Between,” by the Machine in the Garden. This is an album that feels like a long cinematic experience rather than just a collection of songs. It’s full of thick layers of carefully arranged instrumentation surrounding beautiful vocals.