The duo Summer Bowman (also known from Mirabilis) and Roger Fracé, hailing from Austin Texas, make ethereal darkwave music under the moniker The Machine in the Garden since the early 90’s. Tow years ago their latest studioalbum, Shadow Puppets, was released and this is an exceptionally beautiful album which includes my personal favourite TMITG song ‘Suspend’. In celebration of their 15 year existence the band decided to release a compilation cd with special songs, demo recordings, remixes and two new songs (‘Mental Wasteland’ and ‘Otherworld’). The songs cover a period from 1994 to 2007 and perfectly show how the band has developed their sound in these years. The older songs still have a unpolished raw postpunk influence, as is illustrated with ‘Oblician’ and the new songs stand out with their specific ethereal atmosphere with exotic influences. The nice thing of a compilation album is that old gems such as ‘Six Days’ and ‘Nowhere’ that somehow never got released, now get a new chance. Of the remixes especially the smoothly danceable ‘Mad Hatter mix’ of ‘Wonderland’ by Pete Murray and ‘Mantra (Shades of Grey mix)’ by Ego Likeness stand out. The last mentioned remix unites the best elements of the styles of both bands. ‘On the Wire’ of course is a Sisters of Mercy cover, originally released in 1997, yet reworked and rerecorded for this compilation. Finally ‘Otherworld’ is worth mentioning. A new song that in contrary to the loop focussed material on the latest Shadow Puppets album showcases a classical approach without guitar distortion. This makes curious to a new studio album from The Machine in the Garden. For now XV is a special collection of songs which are a pleasure to listen to.
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