Machinedrum’s “Vapor City” hammers grind, spirits’ scape

by Whitney Richardson

Machinedrum, the one-man show Travis Stewart hailing from North Carolina, lays down concrete, lasers, washboards, and stretcher to create Vapor City, his first full-length album since Room(s) in 2011. Listeners, take heed and bump it.

Playful, dreamlike, and sentient to the extreme, the sonic vapors emanate like they came from the mouth of a dragon floating through the streets on Chinese New Year. “Vapor City is an album inspired by a dream city,” explains Stewart. “It’s become such a recurring dream of mine throughout the past few years that I began creating music to it, a collection of different songs each representing different districts in the city.”

Opening with “Gunshotta,” wispy voices against hammering dream beats light the canals. It’s safe here amidst the crammed stimulation of a city built on the psyche’s myths and dreams. Construction never ends in this place, where electronica meets architecture.

Hold in your breath for as long as humanly possible and let it out as slowly as humanly possible while listening to “U Still Lie” to  experience the adrenaline produced alongside this malaise wave. Finishing with “Eyesdontlie,” you’re thrown back into reality, left with a sense of abandonment. Did that just happen? You’ll need to listen again to be sure.

Vapor City is reminiscent of New York’s ongoing show Fuerza Bruta, the album foams a fluorescent bubble sensory bath. Like the show, it poses a scenario hard to separate from the spectator. This one’s for the night people. Industrial scenes splatter against juggling urban imagery – close encounters of some kind.

Set to release September 30, 2013, on Ninja Tune.