Earshot! Magazine, Oct.
2003, by Ryan Long
This opens with "No Caution" a dryly delivered bit of
pop with a kind of suppressed gloom, brightened up with almost-xylophone-like
keyboard plinks. It's impressive and catchy. "Midnight"
changes the pace from catchy alt-pop to sparer, heart-rending stuff
with harmonies. As beautiful as it is sad. "The View"
picks up the pace again to a kind of folk-pop fusion with keyboards
and woah-ohs and hey!s thrown in. Not quite as good as the previous
two tracks.
After a little interlude is the stunning "Secret Affliction"
which will have you humming along and addicted after only a few
listens. The last track, "Chasing The Horizon" is a bouncy,
somewhat peculiar finale with an odd vocal style. All in all this
is a fantastic little EP. Not enough good things can be said about
it. Quite an achievement for a band only formed in October of last
year by two 22 year olds and a 21 year old from Victoria, B.C. Before
forming Immaculate Machine they played in numerous diverse bands
together, from punk to psychedelic to retro R&B and folk. And
based on the sound of this EP it shows; it's damn hard to pin down
their sound. Most of the songs have a folky quality, but more up-tempo,
and fuller-sounding. Would sound very good in a set with Cat Power,
Badly Drawn Boy and most especially The New Pornographers.
http://www.earshot-online.com/Reviews/DisplayReview.cfm?DiscID=7641
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