Machine Drum

Machine Drum is this guy named Travis Stewart. You might know him, all he seems to do is chat on aim and go to parties. Anyway, he launched the Merck label as Syndrone tracking Autchere stylized glitch but smacking it down to a lay man's level with some venous melody. Syndrone's debut Trisikideka reached approximately 10 people before Safety In Numbers stole money from every electronica label in the country and closed. But those ten grew into a goodly thousand and the initial pressing sold out (through other distributors) and Merck had it's first big hit with out ever having to hire a publicist like me to tell you about it. Oh yeah and then this European label Djak-Up-Bitch decided to press Trisikideka to vinyl because it's that good.

Now in the meantime, Mr. Stewart was up to something else. Since 2000 he'd acquired all the instruments of post-teenage-dm. Higher drinking capacity, girlfriends, and a life away from home. Out of this squalor of college living came his next musical project Machine Drum. Machine Drum, to paraphrase Travis, is his party music. It's a party accentuated by mutant drum patterns, MCs freed in the digital world to slip up and double back on their rhymes, and the occasional body massage. His first release as Machine Drum, Now You Know, was a defining moment. Mr. Stewart became a competitor to the glitch-hop throne that Prefuse 73 occupies. His second release Half The Battle, which your getting a copy of here, was a more focused affair, still cutting beats from jazz records, but laying down a smoother atmosphere. It includes remixes from Brothmostates, Proem, Esem, Tim "Koala Man" Koch, and others. Intelligent, but smart enough to not take himself that seriously, Half The Battle and Now You Know are intricately laced releases that you can chew on for awhile before all their layers of connected musicianship come together, but there also fun, melodic, and a little moving.