Machine Woman: When Lobster Comes Home

Every once in awhile there is a track that stops you dead in your tracks. A track that grabs you by the collar, howls in your face and then hugs you tight. “Camile From OHM Makes Me Feel Loved” the lead single from Russian-born, but Berlin-based Machine Woman (aka Anastasia Vtorova) is just that kind of track. It’s the lead track from her first release on Ninja Tune’s Technicolour imprint, When Lobster Comes Home.

“Camile From OHM Makes Me Feel Loved” comes out swinging riding a confident, thumping, shuffling beat. As if that wasn’t arresting enough, Machine Woman litters the beat with glitchy vocal samples and clattering synth noises and effects. The whole thing swells and builds into a turbulent, head spinning mix until a gorgeous choral effect evens out the chaos and lends the track real beauty. It’s the skilled way in that she adds majesty to the chaos, beauty in the mayhem that marks this track as one that should be a stable of any self-respecting Dj’s set from Berlin to Dubai.

The second track, “But It Was Like 30 Intros in a Row” is a knowing ode to a bad review Machine Woman once had after a gig in Portugal. It’s a more hypnotic, spun out track that takes time to hit its stride like two dance partners prowling around a dance floor before launching into a fast and furious routine. The rolling, gnawing synths are shattered and cleaved by crashes of noise that, at about the halfway point, threaten to splutter out of control completely as static glitchiness suggests machines faltering as they try to keep up. Finally, “I Want to Fuck Tech House”, as one would hope, struts out of the blocks with a swaggering groove and a spoken word sample that adds a little darkness. A sense of threat behind the eroticism as if it can’t decide whether to seduce you or fight you.

On the When Lobster Comes Home EP, Machine Woman shows there is nothing more exciting than finding something new to shake your bones.