Lance Ferguson (The Bamboos) surprises with a side project that combines vintage synths and live drums to create an enveloping world of Ambient Beats, Downtempo Electronica, Lo-Fi Hip Hop and Dream Pop sure to appeal to fans of Boards Of Canada, Tycho, DJ Shadow, Four Tet and Air. Ferguson wrote and produced the album and played almost all instruments himself, alongside his longtime studio cohort John Castle (Dean Lewis, Gretta Ray, Angie McMahon, Washington).
Machines Always Win is a musical experiment designed to reconcile Ferguson’s love of beats, breaks, vinyl-digging culture and sampling with a particular strand of melancholic, ambient, guitar, synth-based music. Think much-sampled drummer Bernard Purdie playing with
Ryuichi Sakamoto, or Clyde Stubblefield joining Cocteau Twins. The album is a musical reaction against writing standard verse/chorus/bridge song structures and is intent on letting the music flow and settle in its own way, finding its own level.
“...this sounds like Bonobo meets BadBadNotGood. The percussion is very jazzy and relaxed and meshes incredibly well with the synth pads; each gives the other equal room to stand out" Blisspop
"...leans into warm, widescreen waves of synth, though the elements of percussion are left generally untouched and organic” ADSR Collective
"Dreamy synth laden instrumental work” Electric Sound Of Joy
"...lush and layered with warm synths, a snappy bass line, and loose and relaxed drum work” Magnetic Magazine
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