4 out of 5

Label: Touch and Go

Produced by: Man Or Astroman?

I feel like there’s a general negative opinion toward this album from Man or Astroman followers, as it seemingly dispenses, nigh in entirety, with their tried and true surf / sci-fi formula, but to me, this is progress; the shift they made is – prepare to groan – music to my ears.

Logically – or, well, no, this will be completely illogical, but follow along – for a group enmeshed in throwback sounds, both the Ventures guitar riffs and old movie samples, projected into modern times with a wink and some occasional popsy-rock flourishes, it makes sense that the years of playing would digest those influences and repurpose them somehow; for MoA, that meant diving deeper into anonymity in a way, with the science fiction sorta wholly taking over their identities.  So now blast forth into the future: MoA are automatons; robots primed to fuckin’ rock.  Surf is in the past, echoes in their programming, evidenced in EEVIAC’s kickass opener, Interstellar Hardrive, which funnels all their years-constructed fury into a calculated attack, the most aggressive application of surf rock ever committed.  From there on out it’s a technological construct of a rock disc: fidelity breaking down during jamz; electro vocals bleeding over heavy duty riffs.  The samples are there, but they’re all geared toward machines taking over; toward trusting the tech.  Which MoA have, and it allowed them to fully evolve into something re-energized with fun ideas.

Given that my compliment here concerns the group’s willingness to dive into their identities, it’s unavoidable that a lingering criticism would be the very  lack of the same: EEVIAC is faceless.  The yowls of humans that would occasionally pop up during a sweaty MoA set are necessarily absent.  So, yeah, it’s sort of hollow, something that has plagued most of MoA releases in some form or another.  I don’t mind it here as much, because it thematically fits, but it’s still a final piece of this that prevents it from being perfect.  But it’s a damn fine calculated attempt at perfection.