The electropogo revolution starts here
Who?
Sam Day and Adam Donovan, two dog-eared likely lads, one from London and one from Lincolnshire. Having spent the last couple of years putting single tracks on Bandcamp, the pair have now brought together the best of these for their debut album, ‘Kitchen Sinks And Rocket Ships’. Taking their name from a mind-mushing device used by The Master in a 1971 episode of ‘Doctor Who’ – this was in the glory days of Jon Pertwee – Keller Machine deliver short and sharp electronic pop songs powered by almost punk levels of vim. Is there such a thing as electropogo? There is now.
Why Keller Machine?
We could talk about the gritty vocals, or the super-catchy synth melodies, or the driving basslines, but what’s most striking about Keller Machine is how they sound like they’re having a total blast. They have a way with words as well, the title of their album neatly encapsulating their interest in both humdrum happenings and outer space. Take the opening lines of ‘Neil Armstrong’, a desperate and hilarious message to the dead astronaut about how badly the future has gone wrong: “Sitting in an egg-shaped chair / Listening to Eno / Accumulating some orgone / Reading The Beano”. Rhyming Eno with The Beano is gold star stuff, but sliding a Hawkwind reference in there too is genius.
Tell Us More…
Since you’ve asked nicely… Weirdo disco, black briefcases, monsters, Our Price, paper hats, leaky taps and phone taps, Spizz Energi, double chasers, low-end fuzz, David Essex and Ringo Starr, mini-skirts, builder’s tea, ‘The Man-Machine’, bursts of guitar deliberately timed to give synth purists the heebie-jeebies… And relaaaaaax, albeit only for as long as it takes to start wondering why we’re messing about with half a page on Keller Machine when they should quite clearly be on the cover of the magazine. Maybe next month.
‘Kitchen Sinks And Rocket Ships’ is out via Bandcamp
