john foxx & the maths: the machine

Directed by York Theatre Royal's associate director Juliet Forster, Neil Duffield's adaptation of E.M. Forster's chilling short story The Machine Stops (1909) explores humanity's increasingly intricate and complex relationship with technology. The acclaimed production, which opened in 2016 and toured again in 2017, features a specially composed soundtrack by John Foxx And The Maths -- John Foxx and Benge. This forms much of the music on The Machine, although there are new mixes and some extended material as the pair developed stage music into a fully-fledged album. Described as "eerie", "evocative", and "a triumphant score of chest-crushing anxiety" by The Independent and The Guardian in their stage reviews, the music (created entirely on analog synthesizers and drum machines) is some of the finest the pair have created yet. The Machine's rich atmospheres move from the sinister breathing effects that start on "The Ghost In The Machine" through moments of beauty on "The Other Mother" and ARP Odyssey-soloing "Transworld Travelogue" into an ancient, mythic song on "Memory Oxide" where Foxx further investigates a style that he first explored on his own Cathedral Oceans (1997). Elizabeth Bernholz (Gazelle Twin) provides the high, lilting vocals on "Genetic Hymnal" and the album ends -- as does the stage production -- with the elegiac theme of "Orphan Waltz".