The Machine Room

FINALLY: The Machine Room inevitably make mechanical music, although there’s a strangely appealing weft and weave in their music, where the strict rhythms bow to an indie sensibility, and vice-versa. A pleasant, epic-sounding curio. - A New Band a Day by Joe Sparrow

Another like-minded Edinburgh group making inventive pop tinged electronica are The Machine Room. This five-piece are very much in their infancy but already sound incredibly self-assured, and their beguiling mix of understated melodic pop and hazy electronica is particularly enthralling. The band’s debut single ‘Camino De Soda’ is an especially exciting debut that shows a band full of promise building up to their debut album in 2012. They also have a great subtle take on New Order’s ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ available to download on their Soundcloud page that's very much worth a listen. - Fake DIY - 9th January 2012 by Martyn Young

Winter in Scotland is never a pretty affair. That is unless you’ve been listening to The Machine Room’s new single.

With hooks to kill and vocals that could warm the coldest of December nights, the Edinburgh based five-piece have created a truly engaging track. Already creating quite the buzz on the city’s music scene, the band have made something to rightly get excited about.
Pieced together by former-Vivians bassist, John Bryden, the boys have already received national radio play and firmly outgrown their ‘Art School’ roots.

Kicking off with an unexpected intro, the rhythm section and soaring synths build a cinematic base of euphoria. Bryden’s tranquil vocals sit perfectly on top of these foundations, creating an eerie masterpiece that sounds part New Order, part Electronic and wholly outstanding.
It might still rain and snow but winter will seem a happier place with ‘Camino de Soda’ in it. - Edhinburgh Reporter - December 2, 2011 by Mark Mckinlay

Influences; all bands have them. They can be a source of inspiration, ideas to take, twist and develop as your own, something to aspire to, a challenge to match. Alternatively they can be ripped off, cheaply watered down and just plain old stolen as a cash-in. How influences are used can make or break a band, and also save them from, or condemn them to, a critical mauling. For every group genre-mashing/borrowing geniuses such as The Horrors or The Go! Team there are half a dozen facsimiles like The Pigeon Detectives. Edinburgh's The Machine Room have selected their sonic weapons from the past and, crucially, they know how to use them. Debut EP 'Love From A Distance' isn't quite on a par with the first two bands mentioned, but it pisses from a great height on the likes of the third.

Previous single 'Camino de Soda' chucks in a spattering of baggy to some Rapture-inspired dance floor beats and cowbells. It may be a touch '2003' but due to some killer hooks and glistening synths this doesn't matter a jot. 'Cost Of Progress' is another frantic electro-indie stomper of the sort that Delphic should have made more of, and the airy dreampop of 'Picking Holes' drifts along in a relaxing haze, driven by crashing drums and chiming guitars that recall the poppier moments from Chapterhouse, Slowdive and others of that ilk. 'Your Head On The Floor Next Door' again blends similar elements from the past, throwing The Postal Service into the mix. Whatever a scan through The Machine Room's record collection may reveal, the most important fact is that the basis of this EP is great songs and a skilful knack with a tune. Some superb reinventions from a very promising synth-pop band. - Sounds XP - by Kev W - Jan 26, 2012