This came out in 2001 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
No less an authority than Stereolab DJ Justin Spear has this to say about Birmingham electronica duo Magnétophone: “They’ve got plenty of undercarriage.”
Indeed. If Magnétophone were a seven-member band of dwarves, their names would be Creaky, Squeaky, Bleepy, Clunky, Quirky, Scratchy and Squirrelly. And this 13-cut debut album would be the sounds produced by their malfunctioning robots in the dead of night — a full hour of weird-science instrumental soundscapes constructed from light industrial shavings, vaguely unsettling ambience, clumsy assembly-line electro-pop and sparsely hypnotic, effect-drenched keyboard explosions. I guess sometimes we need to be reminded of how far the bounds of electronica really extend.
