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Machine Boy, "Depression EP"
At the intersection of loopy, downtempo electronica and spoken wordpoetry sits Machine Boy and collaborator Lorian Elbert. It's awell-trodden stretch of road that their project approaches, full ofsuccessful and experimental marriages between the often uncomfortable,confrotntational and confessional vibe of a poetry slam and the more orless easy-to-swallow looped beat, sampled melody routine.Incubator
Here, MachineBoy unfortunately adds nothing to the previous cast of characters whohave worked with these tools in the past. While the central point ofinterest is supposed to be Lorian Elbert's spoken word, that's exactlywhat derails this disc and leaves Machine Boy's production to try, (andfail) to take up the slack. Elbert's poetry might mean something ifread with conviction, but her delivery is soaked with the dissociated,uninterested droll of someone's who's heard of poetry as a verbal artform, but hasn't quite mastered it. Every line pulled from her verse isdelivered with virtually the same intonation so that I'm never sure ifall the words are from one long poem about tedium, or just sound thatway because she lacks the spirit or presence to bring the words fullyto life. The words are further maligned by Machine Boy's sampling,looping, and poor recording of them. Spoken word is a hard thing topull off without garnering laughs from all but the most turtle-neckedEnglish majors, but artists like Nicole Blackman, Maggie Estep, andElizabeth Alexander bring to mind the kind of collaboration thatMachine Boy no doubt wants this to be. Thankfully, none of the tracksare long enough to inspire contempt, but they aren't interesting enoughto merit the short time they do occupy either. Tied down todeconstructed poetry and musical backing that doesn't seem to noticethat the words are there, the Depression EP never has a chance to take off.
Here, MachineBoy unfortunately adds nothing to the previous cast of characters whohave worked with these tools in the past. While the central point ofinterest is supposed to be Lorian Elbert's spoken word, that's exactlywhat derails this disc and leaves Machine Boy's production to try, (andfail) to take up the slack. Elbert's poetry might mean something ifread with conviction, but her delivery is soaked with the dissociated,uninterested droll of someone's who's heard of poetry as a verbal artform, but hasn't quite mastered it. Every line pulled from her verse isdelivered with virtually the same intonation so that I'm never sure ifall the words are from one long poem about tedium, or just sound thatway because she lacks the spirit or presence to bring the words fullyto life. The words are further maligned by Machine Boy's sampling,looping, and poor recording of them. Spoken word is a hard thing topull off without garnering laughs from all but the most turtle-neckedEnglish majors, but artists like Nicole Blackman, Maggie Estep, andElizabeth Alexander bring to mind the kind of collaboration thatMachine Boy no doubt wants this to be. Thankfully, none of the tracksare long enough to inspire contempt, but they aren't interesting enoughto merit the short time they do occupy either. Tied down todeconstructed poetry and musical backing that doesn't seem to noticethat the words are there, the Depression EP never has a chance to take off. samples:
