god machine - scenes from the second storey
Sem-i-nal :- highly original and influencing the development of future events.
It’s a much used word in modern music, but the first God Machine album, ‘Scenes From The Second Storey’, certainly matches the definition. Hailing from San Diego but only finding recognition after a move to London they signed to Fiction records in 1992, they were certainly a band ahead of their time.
They never achieved the sort of commercial success of many of their peers but the tentacles of this record’s influence reach out and touch the likes of Tool, Nine Inch Nails, Trail Of The Dead, Secret Machines and a large swathe of what we would call Post Rock these days. Blending a combination of intense, brutal riffs, a vocal style that sits halfway between Perry Farrell and Trent Reznor and an experimental, psychedelic bent that separated them from the rest of the field at the time and from which a direct line can be traced to Tool’s ‘Lateralus’.
The band have a intellectually willful streak that keeps them from getting caught in the verse / chorus / quiet bit / loud bit that permeated much of rock music at the time in the wake of Nirvana, the time and key changes come at unexpected moments, giving the record and edgy dynamism. The sudden change of direction in the middle of ‘The Blind Man’ is a case in point.
Running through the whole album is a desperate yearning that adds an extra bite of humanism and stops the whole enterprise becoming merely a clinical exercise in experimentalism, Robin Proper-Shepard’s lyrics being unclad windows in to a pained soul. The refrain of If I show you the truth/ Will you show me the beauty/If I show you the pain/Will you show me the purity/If I show you the scars/Will you show me yours/If I show you the stars/Will you show me yours from ‘Purity’ provides stark counterpoint against a background of intense Machine music.
If I was to take a slightly less one-eyed view of this record, I’d would have to admit it is a little flabby in places and GM have a tendency towards self-indulgence. Tracks like ‘Home’ and ‘She Said’ certainly have the feel of ‘filler’ about them, but I’m prepared to forgive that as it is counterbalanced by the magnificence of moments like ‘Temptation’, an instrumental, psychedelic beast of a track with an ever shifting, fluid timing that was doing Post Rock whilst Godspeed were still in short pants.
However, it’s the album’s closing sequence that secures this record’s place in history. From the 16 minute epic ‘Seven’ through the searingly desperate ‘Purity’ to the closing calm-after-the-storm ‘The Piano Song’ the band really flex their creative muscles and lay down something for future generations.