MAQUINA. Prata

Drawing from minimal krautrock repetition, pounding industrial techno and EBM, Lisbon trio Maquina. (‘Machine’) explore the boundaries of these genres with force on their second album Prata (‘Silver’), on Fuzz Club. Across the album’s six tracks, they carve out an adrenaline-fuelled sound that's equally suited to dark, sweaty back rooms and the dance floor. Though Maquina.’s sound might have the club in its sights – Prata follows their aptly-titled 2023 EP Dirty Tracks For Clubbing – this is an organic dance music that’s equally punk and psychedelic, played by a guitar-drums-bass power trio formation firing on all cylinders, without a synthesiser in sight. Instead, the Maquina. M.O. is relentless machine-like drums and primal vocal outbursts (Halison), scuzzy floor-shaking bass riffs (Tomás) and piercing guitar noise and FX (João).Having already amassed a notorious reputation in Portugal for the all-out energy of their live shows, it’s no mean feat to replicate that in the studio but on Prata they have managed exactly that – owing to a creative approach largely rooted in improvisation, both on stage and in the studio. Describing Prata, recorded and co-produced by Carlos de Jesus (Sunflowers) at Arda Recorders, they write: “This album was composed spontaneously in the studio throughout the year 2023. It's music of colour, delving into depths and dimensions that resonate with scale and contrast. Pushing sounds together to make noise and pushing noise together to make sounds. Emphasising textures that evoke feelings and soundscapes rather than relying solely on textual narratives. The music breathes life into auditory canvases, painting sonic panoramas pushing into a world of tactile sensation and immersive experiences.”