CARPTREE - MAN MADE MACHINE - 2005

Original, dark, weird and claustrophobic.

The best way to describe Man Made Machine is to analyse the front cover. Simply put, what you see is what you get. And what you see is an a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y gorgeous package. From the cover to the back, Carptree gets the award for wrapping their cd in such an exquisite artwork. I have a confession to make: I bought the cd because I liked the cover first. Sounds risky, you could end up with so much junk!...But you won't this time!

The mp3 sample from this cd could convince you to buy the record. Good choice, there's plenty more of that stuff on it. Carptree is capable of creating a bizarre rock that catches you by surprise at first, but since you don't hear that everyday you stick to it. The first half is softer, with long piano patterns and subtle keyboard twitches. When you hit the title song, they pull out the big guns with agressive distorded guitars and even darker, heavier atmosphere, the whole thing wrapped up constantly with high tech keyboard noises, ressembling at times of a modern android factory. The songs have a simple pattern of FM rock (chorus, verse,chorus) but where it stuns me is the way they wrap up the song into this thin / heavy aura of gloomy mystery. I mean the chorus is catchy, accessible to a lot of people (a la Peter Gabriel) but the meat around the bone is tough to chew at times.

Honestly, I never had such a HARD time to describe a record. Blend some Peter Gabriel Up period, with Boards of Canada, Radiohead and Knight Area. But again, the songs have their own ways, every one of them. The thing that I'm really sure is the deep, blackish, moody atmosphere without being gothic like White Willow or depressive like VDGG.

An album of nightime but opposite of romance.

An automaton out of Lang's Metropolis.
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