Machina/The Machines of God

Infobox Album
Name = Machina/The Machines of God
Type = studio
Artist = The Smashing Pumpkins


Released = February 29, 2000
Recorded = November 1998 – October 1999 at Sadlands, Pumpkinland, Chicago Recording Company
Genre = Alternative rock
Length = 73:13
Label = Virgin Records
Producer = Billy Corgan and Flood
Reviews =
*Allmusic Rating|3|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:dn6gtr2eklox link]
*"NME" (6/10) [http://www.nme.com/reviews/1905.htm link]
*Pitchfork Media (4.2/10) [http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/21811-machinathe-machines-of-god link]
* Robert Christgau (C+) [http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=smashing+pumpkins link]
*"Rolling Stone" Rating|3.5|5 [http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/smashingpumpkins/albums/album/240886/review/5943076/machinathe_machines_of_god link]
*Ultimate Guitar (8.0/10) [http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/reviews/compact_discs/smashing_pumpkins/machina_-_the_machines_of_god/index.html link]
Last album = "Adore"
(1998)
This album = "Machina/The Machines of God"
(2000)
Next album = "Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music"
(2000)
Misc = Singles
Name = Machina/The Machines of God
Type = studio
Single 1 = The Everlasting Gaze
Single 1 date = December 9, 1999 (promo only)
Single 2 = Stand Inside Your Love
Single 2 date = February 21, 2000
Single 3 = I of the Mourning
Single 3 date = June 2000 (promo only)
Single 4 = Try, Try, Try
Single 4 date = September 11, 2000

"Machina/The Machines of God" is The Smashing Pumpkins' fifth studio album, released on February 29, 2000. A concept album,Corgan, Billy. Live interview. KROQ. 2000-05-24.] it marked the return of drummer Jimmy Chamberlin and was intended to be the band's final official LP release prior to their first breakup in 2000. A sequel album—"Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music"—was later released independently via the internet.

As with "Adore", "Machina" represented a drastic image and sound change for the band. Nonetheless, "Machina", like its predecessor, failed to reconnect the Pumpkins with chart-topping success. However, the band's tours in support of "Machina", entitled "Resume the Pose" and "The Sacred + Profane", were far more successful than the "Adore" tour, as fans responded to the return of Chamberlin and setlists that included far more of the Pumpkins' back catalog.

Recording

The recording of "Machina" was unusually secretive, in contrast to the sessions for "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" and "Adore", both of which were partially filmed. Much like "Mellon Collie", the songs were first tracked acoustically at Sadlands in late 1998 before the band set to work on them at Pumpkinland and the Chicago Recording Company with Howard Willing, Bjorn Thorsrud and Flood. Corgan described the recording process for "Machina":

The band took a break from recording in April 1999 to embark on the "Arising!" tour, which took the band to eight small clubs. At the tour's conclusion, D'arcy Wretzky left the band. Flood remembers,

Interviews at the time claimed that D'arcy had "completed her work" on the album, but the extent of her contributions on the final album are unknown. Corgan later downplayed her role in all Smashing Pumpkins recordings. [Corgan, Billy (interview subject). "Inside the Zeitgeist" DVD. "Zeitgeist" Reissue. (Reprise Records, 2007).]

Album

Corgan has asserted that "Machina" was always intended to be the band's final album - this being the reason for recruiting Jimmy Chamberlin back into the band. Corgan has also said it was meant to be a double album (with "Machina II" being the second disc) but that idea was not approved by Virgin Records as they didn't want to release a risky double album after the disappointing sales of "Adore". [ [http://www.rspaa.org/data/Live/2000-11-29%20United%20Center%2c%20Chicago%2c%20IL%2c%20US/20001129d3%20-%2008%20-%20Interview.mp3 James VanOsdol interviews Billy Corgan] . Audio broadcast: WKQX. Aired 2000/11/29.] After "Machina" proved even less successful than "Adore", the band released "Machina II" on their own.

s were still heavily used.

"Stand Inside Your Love" was released on January 21 2000 as a commercially available single. "The Everlasting Gaze", however, was released at the last minute as the album's first radio single in December 1999. Director Jonas Åkerlund shot videos for "The Everlasting Gaze" and album's last single "Try, Try, Try" which was released on September 11 2000. The video for the latter single was not widely played, in part because of its explicit violence and drug use. "I of the Mourning" was also released as a promotional single and received limited airplay. "Heavy Metal Machine" was issued as a promotional cassette but was not distributed to radio stations.

"Machina" as a concept album

entitled "Chards of Glass", and, later, an animated web series.

According to Billy Corgan, the original plan was to stay in character as the Machines of God throughout the record's promotion. He explained, "When the re-formed band agreed to the concept in October of 1998 as a way to bring the band to a close, everyone agreed to 'play their part' all the way down the line. I never envisioned that D'arcy would leave in April of '99, and that subsequently the 3 of us would try to finish. This put a stress obviously on the full integrity of the project. Because it was connected to the band not only bringing the music to fruition fully, but also the public component of being in character. I ended up in a broken band with a half-ass enthusiasm towards finishing a project already started." [" [http://smashingpumpkins.com/news_9270 PMM / Looking Back : GATMOG Part 3 by Supervajra] ". Smashing Pumpkins.com. 2008-09-11.]

Glass and the Machines of God: the animated web series

's Screenblast, to create their own characters and remixes for the series.

The animated series has since been "put on the shelf" indefinitely. Various rumors attribute the end of the project as lack of interest from Corgan and/or fans. Three episodes were leaked onto the internet in 2003. There has been debate over whether these were early "drafts" or final cuts. The first two episodes contain no credits, where the third episode shows credits at the beginning.

In the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt6tTK4-e9w first episode] , Zero hears the Voice in the Radio and contacts his old friend and manager, Ruby. Their conversation is intercepted and patched through to the head of the Paracell Corp, Mr. Valentine - who has had a history with Zero.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLtewB8UjL4 Episode two] shows Zero's transformation into Glass while visiting Ruby and the subsequent negotiations to get The Machines of God their first gig.

In the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML4QmfI0aJA third episode] we see how Glass affects the audience with his message of revolution.

There was also debate about whether or not background characters were in fact the Ghost Children created by the fans. However, one character - Maya, the Paracell psychic - is known to be a character created by a fan.

Artwork

The booklet artwork loosely tells the album's story through a series of plates featuring medieval-style paintings and text presented in a printing press font created by Vasily Kafanov. The heavily symbolic artwork references the subjects of alchemy, chemistry, metallurgy, physics, medicine, astrology, semiotics, mysticism, spiritualism, and art. "I of the Mourning" is the only release from the album that did not include cover art by Vasily Kafanov. The album was nominated for a 2001 Grammy for Best Recording Package. On page 20 of the booklet in the pictograph labelled: "Plate XII-IN ALL THINGS THE SYMBOLS REIGN SUPREME", there is a small circled number '5' with a '2' and '3' on either side, which correspondes to the date (May 23rd) of the annocement by Billy Corgan of the bands break up. This is significant because the album had already been released for months prior to the annoncement which may be a sign that the date had already been chosen for that specific purpose and may have been a clue to more observant fans.

Response

"Machina" is generally considered to be among The Smashing Pumpkins' least successful releases. Although it entered the U.S. charts at #3, sales declined sixty percent the second week, [Boehlert, Eric. [http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/oasis/articles/story/5924116/my_how_the_giants_have_fallen "My, how the Giants Have Fallen: Oasis, Pumpkins Suffer Huge Sales Slides In Second Week".] rollingstone.com. March 15, 2000.] and continued to slide. With U.S. sales of 583,000 units as of 2005, [Cohen, Jonathan. [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000965429 "Smashing Pumpkins to Reunite?"] . billboard.com. June 21, 2005.] "Machina" was the lowest-selling Pumpkins album to date. Regarding the disappointing sales, Jimmy Chamberlin commented, "It was like watching your kid flunking out of school after getting straight A's for ten years." [Fricke, David. " [http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/smashingpumpkins/articles/story/5918770/smashing_pumpkins_look_back_in_wonder Smashing Pumpkins Look Back in Wonder] ". "Rolling Stone" Magazine. 2000-12-20.]

The album received mixed reviews - Brent DiCrescenzo of Pitchfork Media heavily criticized the album's length, "Wall of Sound" production style, and Chamberlin's drumming. [cite web
author= DiCrescenzo, Brent
url = http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/21811-machinathe-machines-of-god
title= MACHINA/The Machines of God
format=http
publisher=Pitchfork Media
date=2000-02-01
accessdate=2007-04-16] Others contend that "Machina" brought together the rock sensibilities of the Pumpkins' early albums with the atmospherics and lyrical maturity of 1998's "Adore" - Jim DeRogatis of the Chicago Sun-Times, infamous among fans for his sharp criticism of the Pumpkins' 1993 breakthrough album "Siamese Dream", called "Machina" "an exceedingly impressive and hard-driving record."DeRogatis, Jim. "Smashing Pumpkins Reclaiming Rock Glory." "Chicago Sun-Times". 2000-02-29.]

Track listing

All tracks written by Billy Corgan.

# "The Everlasting Gaze" – 4:00
# "Raindrops + Sunshowers" – 4:39
# "Stand Inside Your Love" – 4:14
# "I of the Mourning" – 4:37
# "The Sacred and Profane" – 4:22
# "Try, Try, Try" – 5:09
# "Heavy Metal Machine" – 5:52
# "This Time" – 4:43
# "The Imploding Voice" – 4:24
# "Glass and the Ghost Children" – 9:56
# "Wound" – 3:58
# "The Crying Tree of Mercury" – 3:43
# "With Every Light" – 3:56
# "Blue Skies Bring Tears" – 5:45
# "Age of Innocence" – 3:55

International releases

Some releases—namely, European and Asian Hut Records versions, and all vinyl editions—have an added track, "Speed Kills". This version of "Speed Kills" is not the "Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music" version, but the version that appears on the "Stand Inside Your Love" single. On the international CDs, the song is edited to a cut nearly two minutes shorter than the original, and the last four tracks are resequenced. A Japan promo version has an extended version of "The Sacred and Profane" with two bars of electronic drum beat in the beginning of the song, and a slightly different mix of "Age of Innocence".

Outtakes

A number of songs were recorded in some form or another during the "Machina" sessions but did not make either "Machina/The Machines of God" or "Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music":

*"Autumn" (instrumental, not to be confused with the 1994 demo "Autumn Nocturne")cite web| url = http://www.spfc.org/band/studio.html?session_id=46| title = Studio Sessions: Late 1998| publisher = SPFC.org| accessdate = 2007-10-03]
*"Drain"
*"Here I Am"
*"Laugh"
*"Lover"
*"Death Boogie" [cite web| url = http://www.spfc.org/band/studio.html?session_id=43| title = Studio Sessions: November 1998 - October 1999| publisher = SPFC.org| accessdate = 2007-10-03]
*"Winterlong" (later released on "Judas Ø")
*"Soot and Stars" (later released on "Judas Ø")

Chart positions

Album

ingles

Personnel

*The Smashing Pumpkins
**Billy Corgan – vocals, guitar, bass on "Age of Innocence", producer, art direction, mixing
**James Iha – guitar
**D'arcy Wretzky – bass
**Jimmy Chamberlin – drums
*Mike Garson – piano on "Glass and the Ghost Children"
*Flood – producer, mixing
*Alan Moulder – mixing
*Bjorn Thorsrud – recording, mixing, digital editing, compilation, additional programming
*Mike Zainer – mixing assistant
*Bill Douglass – mixing assistant
*Jef Moll – mixing assistant
*Erin Piepergerdes – mixing assistant
*Andrew Nicholls – mixing assistant
*Howard C. Willing – recorder, mixing
*Howie Weinberg – mastering
*Tim "Gooch" Lougee – technical assistance
*Scott Schimpff – technical assistance
*Tommy Lipnick – technical assistance
*Yelena Yemchuk – art direction
*Greg Sylvester – art direction
*Thomas Wolfe – art direction
*Vasily Kafanov – paintings, etchings

References

External links

* [http://www.spfc.org/songs-releases/discog.html?discog_id=136 spfc.org : discography : Machina/the machines of God]
* [http://www.orphweb.de/machina%20writings.htm "Machina": The Writings]
* [http://www.orphweb.de/machina%20chards.htm Chards of Glass: The "Machina" Blogs]
* [http://www.metrochicago.com/pumpkins/ Free download of Machina II]