Track By Track: Brain Machine – Peaks
Juan Trippe, Guido Zen and Kyle Martin make up the group Brain Machine. Following a previous release on Emotional Response in 2014 and outings on Thisisnotanexit and Titan's Halo Records, the crew now return to showcase 'Peaks'. Eight tracks of bewildering haze and dreamy electronics. They talk us through the release, track by track…
ALPHA MOON
This is one of the more recent tracks…written and recorded last year…a little more conventional than most of our tracks but it still has that mysterious vibe and lots of Guido’s custom built filters and synths. It’s one of the tracks where we managed to be all in the same room when working on it.
CRYSTAL CLOUD
Perhaps my favourite track…guitar and an old Sequential Circuits synth through Eventide effects… reminds me of Cluster…a real lost in the stars track…
MERCURY RIPPLES
This one goes way back…I love the way the opening drifts and shifts…one of our most liquid vistas…Kyle really helped to refresh the beats and nail the vibe…always reminds me of Gamelan music for some reason…
LIGHTSPACE
Another track that goes way back…one of our most robust grooves coupled with some of our most ethereal tones…more H3000 guitars
Custom synths and Kyles crisp beats. Another highlight for me.
NEXUS VOX
Perhaps the oldest track on the album and apparently all built from samples of my voice and the Realistic MG-1 through Space Echo…I actually have no memory of making this at all and was quite shocked to hear it when Guido compiled the album!
TO THE STARS
This one has existed in many different versions and for one reason or other we found it really hard to complete…at one time it featured a synth part by Oneohtrix Point Never…his part was recorded before he hit ‘the big time’ but by the time we were ready to release it there was too much red tape to contend with so we ditched it…shame really. It also features Zombi’s AE Paterra on drums and synth sequences.
TRACES
An oldie but goldie. This is possibly the oldest track on the record …it all started from a sequence of my Evolver going through a new filter I had just built. It has a very unique sound. We always liked this one but it took Kyle’s input to pull it together…
ECLIPSE PREDICTIONS
This is the most recent track, although it started from a demo recorded with an old Farfisa organ. It features autoharp through a pitch shifter to create an almost zither like sound. There’s my voice in the mix too and Kyle was in from the start…it’s only track when we used the Fender Rhodes that we have in the studio.
Buy the release HERE.
