_Album Review: Rain Machine Self-Titled

Rain Machine -

Rain Machine

Rating:

[Released September 22nd via Anti-]

With TV on the Radio going on hiatus for what will surely feel like an eternity, just where do you go to feed your hunger for TVotR music? Your answer: Kyp Malone.

Malone goes by the moniker Rain Machine. The music is not like the quilt like blend of various genres TVotR fans are used to. Instead, Malone aims at minimalistic indie blues, using sparse instrumentation consisting of his guitar and a hodgepodge of percussion instruments.

The unofficial First Aid anthem, “Give Blood,” starts off with heavy bells before a guitar riff as fuzzy as Malone’s beard cuts into the mix to spike up the album’s most energetic track.

After the punchy opener, the album begins to drift into a mellower state of conscious. There’s a certain intimacy and vulnerability in Malone’s husky howl and falsetto croon all over the album.

A handful of tracks span past the four minute mark, including the ballad “Smiling Black Faces.” The track is a slowburn song, building up as it goes until unleashing full force in the last minute. His lyrics are the true vehicle that serve this song, as it is sung in a storytelling fashion with some political charge added in. (more…)

_Rain Machine – Smiling Black Faces

Almost 2 months ago, the first track from TV On The Radio’s Kyp Malone leaked online under the name ‘Rain Machine‘ titled “Give Blood” and a release date for his debut side project LP, September 22nd.

Just last week, Tunde Adebimpe officially announced that the band was going to take a year hiatus working on side projects. So just be clear – the band did not break up.

“Smiling Black Faces” is the most recent track we’ve heard by Rain Machine, a 6 minute song including topics like genocide, unsmiling faces and slave names. I got hooked on the first listen – it’s one of the most impressive songs I’ve heard so far this month. I don’t know if it’s his voice, the guitar, the jingle bells in the background or the claps in the end of the song (or maybe it’s all of these factors) that is spot on, but it is an amazing song overall. Kyp is an amazing lyricist, as well.

Kyp on Rain Machine:

“a nearly full spectrum of frequencies audible to the human ear, a reflection of a variety of emotions and situations real and imagined – some rhythm some rhyme.”

Rain Machine – “Smiling Black Faces”Stream