Short Reviews [Monday Machines - 2010 - "Monday Machines"]

Although this 2010 album was released by Monday Machines, it is actually a Cary Grace album in all but name, in that Cary provides vocals, keyboards, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, synthesizers, and is joined by long-time collaborators Andy Budge (bass) and David Payne (drums) and musically is very much part of her canon. The final member of the group this time is guitarist Allan Coberly, whose Monday morning was disturbed one day when workmen with jackhammers and bulldozers started working near his home. Cary convinced him to record the sounds he could hear from his window, and there started the germ of the idea and the basis for the album. These sounds can be heard at different places throughout. In many ways this is both one of the most exciting and accessible albums from Cary, while it is almost one of her most experimental. Although again there are times when she is channelling her inner Patti Smith, there are also plenty of instances where there is no anger in her vocals, and instead there is a breathy delicacy which one imagines could just disappear into the ether at any moment. Yet while she is being gentle the music underneath can be incredibly angular and aggressive, as although the rhythm section tries to keep it some semblance of order and normality, Coberly provides jagged chords so sharp they hit like breaking glass. We move in and out of krautrock, in and out of space rock, and we even take a trip into the psychedelic Sixties, with music which is both edgy and exciting, threatening and dangerous, yet compelling and lulling. The more I have played this the more I feel this is a great introduction to anyone who has yet to come across any of Cary’s albums as in one place one can get a real understanding of where she is coming from. It is a collection of smaller pieces, with only a couple breaking seven minutes in length and the rest being less than seven. Coberly recorded in the US while the rest was undertaken in the UK, so not quite the same amount of joint improvisation as on other albums, yet from playing this one cannot fathom they were not all in the same room at the same time. Cary has released some simply stunning albums over the years, and this is right at the top of the list alongside ‘Tygerland’ and ‘Lady of Turquoise’. If you have yet to discover the sounds of Cary Grace, then you owe it to your ears to search this one out.