Secret Machines
Awake In The Brain Chamber

There is a pleasure that is priceless for me, tasting simple yet solid flavors, a delight in listening that takes me back to the best moments of rock, in albums like this one. Works without commercial ambitions, self-produced, fitting into a stylistic path without peaks or bursts, but solid, dignified, and self-appreciating. With even sad stories of talented, young musicians like Benjamin Curtis, an effect-laden and dreamy guitarist, who founded the band in question with his brother Brandon, left it for School Of Seven Bells (and for the girls, too…), returned, recorded a solo that would end up on this album and then was taken away by lymphoma, one of those things that disrupts projects, dreams, instrumental ideals. Awake In The Brain Chamber is the fourth album by The Secret Machines, the first in twelve years. And it is a pleasure to hear.

Ingredients: the aforementioned Brandon, keyboardist, bassist, and singer with a raspy voice that is often filtered, effected, blended into the rhythmic flow supported by Bonzo’s emulator, Josh Garza, who strikes like a blacksmith and excellently upholds a sonic structure between progressive and shoegaze (the band itself defines as "space rock"). Various and occasional guests, but fundamentally it's just the two of them. No virtuosity, no long-winded solos, zero showposturing, but a compact, blended sound that nonetheless appears simple only on the surface, requiring a few listens to intrigue and savor the small great ideas.

The opening of 3, 4, 5 Let’s Stay Alive feels like a resurgence of the powerful intro of First Wave Intact, the first track of their first album (2004), for those who have listened, which then unfolds among tightly wound guitars, spacey keyboards, compressed and evocative vocals.

Then it jumps to fast-paced rhythm, with the intriguing and underground flow of synth and guitars in Dreaming Is Alright, to then arrive at the bizarre and powerful Talos’ Corpse, where the touch of class is given by the voice reaching cavernous tones and the irregular rhythm contrasting with a catchier refrain supported by the synth; the whole is almost majestic.

Another ride, like a train in motion or barriers on an overpass with Everything’s Under, where one can still appreciate the compact and choral direction in which the instruments are launched, creating a unique and never trivial piece.

The melancholy filters through the keyboard inserts in Everything Starts, and it’s no coincidence that this is the song where the guitar is most present, played by the late Benjamin who, besides simple arpeggios, indulges in a psychedelic solo; the overdubbed vocals are also well-done. Angel Come is the weakest episode, as it doesn’t have major developments and remains a track consistently the same, but the hypnotic and paroxysmal climate that the band maintains throughout the piece is appreciable.

Great number with A New Disaster, which beneath a rather simple and catchy rhythmic patina hides remarkable melodic research and, yet again, considerable instrumental class; excellent chorus and excellent vocal games that Brandon plays with his sumptuous raspy voice, often filtered by the synth. It works!

The closure is entrusted to the touching So Far Down, with guitars and slow, deep drums that give a touch of sentiment typical of a ballad, but once more the blend is incredibly well-executed and balanced.

A special mention for all the lyrics, cryptic, distant, and never trivial, often desperate and very melancholy. Awake in The Brain Chamber is, according to the writer, a truly great album. It doesn’t reach certain heights of its predecessor, Secret Machines from 2008, (which contains, for example, I Never Thought To Ask, one of the most beautiful electronic ballads ever written in my opinion), but paradoxically it proves more compact, less erratic, tastier and more inspired.

Disclaimer - I am (perhaps) a bit biased because:

• I love this band, since the beginning;
• I love the sounds between progressive and cosmic, and they perfectly match that;
• I love the badass rhythm, which is not afraid of anything, not even overshadowing keyboards, guitar, and voice;
• I love the filtered, subdued singing that blends into the instrumental flow without taking too much space, with discretion.

That said, we are simply facing a work of true rock, raw, with a dirty but refined sound, which works. And it was released in 2020!