The Human Machine

Bummer punks Panoramic release new album "Not Exactly", tour with Talk, Tired Thanatoid

Panoramic are sad boys who rock, as well as sad boys who also happen to be DIY4LYFErs. Respectively prolific and intimately tied to DIY scenes of Orange County and the Inland Empire, members Alex Vercnocke, Austin Jenkins, Jonathan Modell (The Human Machine, Tririlla Recordings), and Matt Sturgis (The Palisades, Hillary Chillton, Model Talk) are running out to the southwest from August 5th till August 11th with mathpop duo Talk, Tired Thanatoid, coinciding with the release of Panoramic's debut album Not Exactly. Recorded at hideout/traphouse/lovenest The Palisades, the quartet's first full-length sees an expansion beyond the pop punk roots of EP "Rule of Thirds". Polyrhythmic piano solos and tight harmonies combine with quintessential tropes of the post-teen years including walking away from love, addiction, lost friendships, and suburban malaise.

The album is being released on cassette (/25) and on CD via Pacific Nature Records: each cassette and CD will be scented with pine essential oil. See their tour kickoff/album release party at Beatnik Bandito tonight, and listen to the first track of the debut album, "Not Exactly", below.

   

Instrumental rock bands helm benefit show for Santa Ana arthouse cinema

On February 5th, local music collective Diy4lyfe lines an arthouse stage with five up-and-coming bands from disparate cities across Southern California. Originally billed as a release party for The Human Machine's Patterns, the event was postponed to add Young Lovers with Hollow Ran, Pedestrian, and Twentytwofourteen (who recently released the "Please Go Quietly" EP). Each band performs with their own projections, along with a special music video premiere by live-loop duo Time and Energy.

The show is one of many efforts to fundraise for The Frida Cinema, a non-profit community-driven arthouse cinema in Santa Ana. Founded in 2014 by director and OC native Logan Crow, The Frida Cinema has featured critically acclaimed and underrepresented films for Orange County residents. Last May, Crow announced to LA Times that once the theater developed a solid audience, he would celebrate with a screening of The Room. Godspeed.

Set times and ticket information on the event page. - Ryan Mo

   

Get lost in The Human Machine's sophomore LP "Patterns", release party tonight

From the twinkle of emo-tinged post-rock to the suffocating gravity of drone, OC's trio The Human Machine wields an amorphous sound that is undeniable in its grandeur and technique. Displaced by geography — Jake Ingalls (bass) and Patrick Whitehill (guitar/vocals) lived in the Bay for a time, while Jonathan Modell (drums) stayed in the OC — the three built the "Contrashiva" EP on modulating textures, down-tempo rhythms and chordal intricacies — stuff that would make Don Caballero and American Football fans ecstatic. Following a split EP with Oakland's Stars Are Projectors (now Valley Girls), THM released their 2014 self-titled debut album. Tonally rich and unapologetically honest, the seven-song album immersed listeners in jazz cadences and psychedelic atmospheres.

Their newest album Patterns is the second body of work (following January's "Palimpest") that the trio have had the luxury of working on at length — "All material up to "Palimpest" was done under time limitations and living throughout different parts of California," says Modell. Shedding some shoegaze and post-rock influences in favor of improvisational and functionalist grooves, Patterns welds textures of Duster and Can with the thrum of Earth into titanic passages. "My inspiration behind Patterns was to make music that sounded desolate," says Whitehill. "Music that makes you anxious; music that makes you feel like you are moving slowly through a desert."

Modell adds, "THM's progression as a band has been a very natural arc that shifted with our influences. I wouldn't call Patterns a hard shifting point. It was the natural step for us after "Palimpest" — focusing less on the technicality and more on the textures and grooves that can be carried for extended lengths of time."

Tonight, The Human Machine celebrate their newest album Patterns with a release party at Beatnik Bandito with New Balance (of Canyons), Dead Recipe (Santa Cruz), Young Jesus, and Known Bird Sightings. - Ryan Mo