Machinefabriek - Bijeen - Gathered Eccentrics 2005-2007
[Kning Disk]

It seems you cannot get through a week without a new Machinefabriek release as Arnhem-based Rutger Zunderveldt sets about redefining the meaning of prolific. Only his fellow countryman, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, comes close and his expertise is in football not music. While his 2007 back catalogue is well into double figures, “Bijeen...” collects those compositions from the last couple of years that even the most attentive fan might have missed.

Machinefabriek deserts his favoured guitar experimentation for a processed piano piece, on the predictably titled “Piano.Wav”. For this track, Zunderveldt stretches, chops, glitches and filters a vaguely familiar piano sample immersing it in his world of static and hiss. “Haavelar”, meanwhile, rumbles with his patented brand of tension, like the collapse of some huge, nuclear plant in the former Soviet bloc. This piece soon ascends from an eerie silence erupting into a quite frightening section of jarring, abrasive noise.

Tension is key to Zunderveldt’s music, as the outstanding “Borgheisha Remix” will attest. It may start rather beautifully with what sounds like a digitalized string section, but an ominous hum and glitch electronic rustles lie just under the surface, creating feelings of apprehension and unease. Within such a setting, it is not long before we are catapulted into a segment that can only be described as digital terror. The huge vacuums of abused distorted guitar and degraded electronics are disquietly delightful.

“Weightless Remix”, though, redresses the balance, adding some orchestral sounds giving off an optimistic and hopeful aura, while providing respite amidst the austerity of other movements on “Bijeen...”

We should know by now an odds ‘n sods collection of material from Machinefabriek isn’t going to be exactly what we expect. Zunderveldt pours every ounce of passion into all of his compositions. If we are talking value for money few do it better than this Dutch destroyer. Kning Disk has collected over an hours worth of rare music together here. Each piece, from the monolithic “Light” to the exotic “Verdrinkwater” is doused in the tension that is such a hallmark of Machinefabriek’s music.

Bijeen Track Listing:

1. Borghesia Remix
2. Piano.wav
3. Havelaar
4. Reglyph
5. Dahl
6. Verdrinkwater
7. Weightless Remix
8. Licht