Engine Machine

Album Review

The closest comparison to Denmark's Düreforsög is probably Wire — certainly in their most creative period. The Danes have a similar off-the-wall spirit about songwriting, although tracks like "Interlude" hang together very well. They have a punk spirit about them, as evidenced on "A Racetrack," but also a sense of atmosphere and adventure that keeps pushing to the edge. To possess those qualities and come up with interesting material is a feat, but one the band manages. They don't have the abruptness of Wire; instead their songs develop and extend, and there's more emphasis on guitar among the metal percussion, gurgling and spitting. And there's a definite beauty in the melodies. The title track is a curious little piece on Moog. Rhythms are always solid, and often unusual, but they lay a strong foundation for the spikiness that's "Get On Land." They pull out all the stops for "Rendetaarn, KBH," which includes everything but the kitchen sink in a fountain of carefully constructed noise that deconstructs down to a nagging Can-like riff . It's perhaps facile to define the group in terms of other bands, especially when they have their own developed sound, and they're only going to get better. But the analogies serve as markers toward the territory they're mining, and with Engine Machine, they're finding a lot of gold in the seams.