This is the second album by Enigmatic Sound Machines, a band formed by multi-instrumentalist Jeremie Arrobas (Men Without Hats) and musicologist, researcher, producer, arranger, and writer Thomas Szirmay. Thomas and I have known each other for years, but until he sent me this album, I was not aware he was a musician as well. The two men went to the same school together in Montreal, attending many prog concerts in the early Seventies, but it was only recently that they started to record together. In the summer of 2023 Jeremie had the urge to start recording again, even though he had lost 80% of his hearing, so he turned to his old friend to be his guide and following the success of ‘Telepathic Waves’ are now back with the next release. The line-up is Jeremie (keyboards, lead vocals, guitars, bass, and electronic sound machines), Thomas (electronic sound machines, backing vocals, sonic shaping, and humour), Hansford Rowe (bass and fretless bass), Shane Hoy (guitars), Alain Roig (guitars), and Anna Arrobas (voices).
There is always a risk when being sent an album by a friend, as what happens if I don’t like it? I remember girding my loins and writing a pretty brutal review some years back, and was quite relieved when I had an email back saying everything I had put in the review was totally fair. Not long afterwards there was a significant line-up change and the next album was much improved. But what about this? I had no idea what to expect, but even though there are two guitarists this is mostly an electronic album which moves between 70’s/80’s pop and prog. I smiled when I saw the DPRP review of their debut release as the obviously had similar views to mine, although also slightly different. What we have here is a band who take their prog influences from Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk, then mixing in the more pop influences of Ultravox and Gary Numan to create something which at times straddles the different genres, and at others moves more one way or the other.
When I first started playing this, I really wasn’t too sure what to think as this is not a style of music I generally listen to, but after a while I realised that whether I normally listened to this style or not, there was something about this which I was really enjoying. The changes in style can sometimes be quite severe, but never so much that the thread is not continued, and there is the surprise in never knowing quite what is going to come next. In some ways this feels quite a light album in that there is never a tremendous amount of depth, and everything seems to be happening at the same level, but at the same time there is the impression this is deeply thought out and constructed with a strong sense of direction and never meandering endlessly.
It is definitely a dated album in that it is firmly in the early Eighties, but whereas I truly despised most of the music when I lived through it (apart from metal and Marillion, I had yet to discover the rest of the underground prog scene) now we are this far removed I can honestly say this is a refreshing and totally enjoyable album. There was no need for me to be worried about upsetting Thomas, as this is a delight.
