Following on from his rather filthy Like A Machine EP earlier in the year Andy Meecham is cued to drop this new release Hey! on Monday and if anything it only builds on the scuzzy sound of that last release.
This new EP precedes a return to DJing in 2014 and a planned full-length album and new live show. Michelle Bee is shaping up to be a key partner in the forthcoming plans for The Emperor Machine, lending vocals to not only "Hey!" but a number of tracks on the new album. Much like on "Like A Machine" the vocals here provide a dramatic sense of sultry humanity to the jacking robotic rhythms. An extended vocal and extended dub provide two flavours of the original, a track built around a stripped back 80s house inspired hook that borrows a little from Adonis' "No Way Back" and gives it a strutting punk-funk rhythm embellished with scratchy snatches of guitar and some heavily arpeggiated synths.
Three remixes come from Ewan Pearson. The first, the "Skronk Disco Mix", features sleazy jazzy brass getting rough with a some seriously elastic bass and clattering drum rolls. In combination with Michelle Bee's vocals it results in a heavily layered and busy track but the sax, played by a guest musician from The Rapture, gives this a real backstreet New York vibe that's intensely depraved and slightly psychotic. A "Skronk Dub" does it all again but without those vocals, and with such excellent production it's better for a modicum of restraint. The final remix is Pearson's "Dubstramental" and it's slightly tighter still, reigning in the disco flourishes of the "Skronk" but amping the dark psychedelic acid feel in their place.
Finally the EP also includes a second original track, "Mandy Mutron", which comes complete with a low slung bassline and greasy guitars. It's another track that will go down a treat in the more twisted establishments and it has me excited for the forthcoming album.
Hey! is released through Southern Fried Records on Monday, available to pre-order on MP3 and 12" from Amazon.co.uk, though the latter is currently posting a later release date [affiliate links].