Immaculate Machine is an indie-rock band that lives on an
island. In order to move freely to and from their geographically
isolated homeland, they have made a rock album called Immaculate
Machine's Fables. It is a series of vignettes about traveling.
The band enlisted the help of esteemed colleagues such as
producers Colin Stewart (Black Mountain, Pretty Girls Make
Graves) and John Collins/Dave Carswell (New Pornographers,
Tegan & Sara), violinist Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy,
Arcade Fire), and back-up vocalists Alex Kapranos (Franz Ferdinand)
and The Cribs. Fables, the band's sophomore label effort,
is due out in June and will be followed by tours of North
America and Europe.
Kathryn Calder (keyboard/vocals), Brooke Gallupe (guitar/vocals)
and Luke Kozlowski (drums/vocals) began Immaculate Machine
with two independent releases (The View EP 2003 and Transporter
LP 2004) and a bunch of shows in Canada. The trio shared the
stage with fellow Canadians The Arcade Fire and The Constantines
before finding a label home with Mint Records.
Immaculate Machine released its label debut on Mint in September
2005. Ones and Zeros received critical notice and made the
band a hit on non-commercial radio stations in Canada. A music
video for lead track "Broken Ship" was broadcast
on several stations in North America, including MuchMusic
in Canada. The album was supported with tours in Canada, the
USA, the UK and Europe, including a support tour for Destroyer
and The New Pornographers.
Incidentally, Carl Newman, frontman of The New Pornographers,
is related to the band by more than just his labelmate status.
He is also Kathryn's long lost uncle. Kathryn played piano
and sang on The New Pornographers' album Twin Cinema, and
has now taken on double duty becoming a full-time member of
the band.
October 2006 saw the release of an EP of French translations
of a selection of the songs from Ones and Zeros, which was
met with puzzled enthusiasm. Les Uns Mais Pas Les Autres delighted
bilingual and francophone fans and media. Immaculate Machine
can now surprise an audience by throwing in a French chorus
or an entire verse to mix it up, a proven crowd pleaser with
Parisians and Francophone Canadians.