REVIEW
album
Old Subbacultcha
Old Subbacultcha
The Difference Machine expose us to their futuristic Hip-Hop world
Published
Old Subbacultcha
Old Subbacultcha
It sounds like The Difference Machine have dug deep to reach the future and create their own sounds and their own world
The Difference Machine - The Psychedelic Sounds Of The Difference Machine (The Difference Machine)
8/10
Somewhere between the fuzzy smoke of Gang Starr, Nas, and the spaced out hip hop of Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, you’ll find the bliss out slightly paranoia-edged psych hip hop of The Difference Machine aka Dr Conspiracy and rapper DT - a guy who clearly loves his delay pedals and effects that he uses on his vocals. They’re a full on live psychedelic edged hip hop band with drummer Radley Fricker, and Mike ‘The Kill Fist’ Mosca who does the programming. The Difference Machine hail from Atlanta, Georgia, and on their recently released debut album ’The Psychedelic Sounds Of The Difference Machine’, which wizzes by in just over 35 minutes, the above description is an approximation of what they sound like. At other times such as on ’Marvel’ they sound like Hawkwind in a far out, progged out, jam with fellow Atlantians )or should that be ATLiens?) space cadets Outkast. The Difference Machine seem to operate on a different planet, or at least in their own skewiff or parallel version of the universe. As they say on the playful track ’Futuristic Blast’, ’this is a futuristic blast from the past.’ The album and The Difference Machine in general seem determined to forge their own path, and in particular to their own surreal and unique place with a loose lingering look to the past. The aforementioned track ’Marvel’ is freaky enough as its both a play on the word ’marvel’ and a tribute to the ’Marvel’ comics and their characters such as spiderman. Then there’s the trippy and stone madness of ’Scorpions.’Then there’s the intricate yet defiant wordplay of ’Live In Head’, as DT proclaims, ’I walk to my beat no fears as I walk down my own street.’ Indeed the first half of the album, and particularly the aforementioned tracks are of a more ’playful’ nature. But it’s the last 5 or 6 tracks when they get more ’serious’ and ratchet up the tension a notch, particularly on the brilliant ’Psychology’, and the paranoia seeps in particularly on the almost acapella boom bap of ’Pay Something.’ Where the rhymes and flows come thick and fast from DT over Dr Conspiracy’s wigged out yet thumping beats and soundscapes, and where they get a bit more personal particularly on ‘Pay Something.’ Plus ‘So Hip’ is pretty much as it says in the title of the track, its left of centre yet pulsatingly hip. Then there’s the epic ‘New Phaoroah’, and the closing track ‘The Awakening’ which sounds like a lost Beastie Boys track beamed in from Mars with elements of Led Zeppelin and Hawkwind. The Difference Machine are trying to make hip hop, for want of a better word, different and they definitely trying to mold hip hop and music in general into their own image and are continuing to forge their own style, which hopefully we’ll hear more of, beamed directly from their own world, in the near future.
CLICK HERE TO READ OUR ORIGINAL REVIEW AND SAMPLE A TRACK FROM THE DIFFERENCE MACHINE www.facebook.com/TheDifferenceMachine www.thedifferencemachine.bandcamp.com
www.twitter.com/DiffMachine Thanks to Alyssa De Hayes @ Team Clermont