FAILURE MACHINE – EP REVIEW

Failure Machine – Wake Drake Skate (SNAFU Family Records) 
Failure Machine - Wake Drake Skate


Release Date: Out Now

Take these four songs at face value and you’ve got a soul-punk EP that lasts less than ten minutes and it’s high-octane, up-tempo fun. Then give it a second listen and you’ll realise that half of this EP was originally penned by sweater wearing R&B star Drake while the other half is written by LA garage punkers FIDLAR. Yeah, this is happening, so strap yourself in because Reno’s finest are back, it’s Failure Machine time.

Things kick off with that most recognisable of Drake tunes, ‘Hotline Bling’, but this time it sounds like it’s being ripped a new one by the Blues Brothers and that sounds amazing. Take the chilled vibes out of a song and replace them with a little aggression, desperation and a horn section and suddenly you’ve got a party going on – somebody bring me a keg. Then we switch to FIDLAR’s ‘No Waves’, opening with the lines “I feel, I feel like a cokehead, I feel, I feel like I can’t get drunk no more cause I’m on the floor looking for some matches to cook up a score”. Then the 100 mph guitars start and Spencer Kilpatrick’s razor-blades-in-a-blender vocals kick up a notch – who has a length of hose?

Back to Drake for the Blues rattle of ‘Energy’ – “I got enemies, got a lotta enemies” – and those horns shine through as the guitars jangle and the drums thud superbly which must suck if you’re Drake, to hear your own songs played 100 times better than you ever managed. Cuckold much? Let’s finish up on FIDLAR’s ‘Cheap Beer’ which is basically the sound of a house party tipping over the edge in to chaos as pictures fall from the wall, windows smash and somebody somewhere is getting it on with somebody they probably shouldn’t be getting it on with. There’s a sax solo and then I threw up a little but the keg is empty and the party is roasting so I ain’t complaining. Are you? ARE YOU???


Listen/Download Here: https://failuremachine.bandcamp.com/album/wake-drake-skate

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