THE GOD MACHINE: HOW THE DARK SCENERY OF 'SCENES FROM THE SECOND STOREY' STANDS THE TEST OF TIME
I got to know The God Machine by the MTV program 120 Minutes as I did with many other 'alternative' bands at that time. Their 'Home' videoclip was played regularly those sundays in the early nineties. Then I copied their debut album on K7 from another music lover. Sometimes I left the album for shorter or longer periods of time, but it never got completely out of sight - as with all great art one disposes of. Since long I have their music digitally. It deserves this extensive write-up upon which I had been thinking for a while... simply because I owe it to music...
Scenes from the Second Storey to me is as important as art can be. Personally I don't think it's the depressive album some see in it, yet it is very expressive. Haunting even. And tight. Guitarist-singer Robin Proper-Sheppard, who is probably more known by his actual band Sophia than he was by The God Machine, feeds and expresses those extreme emotions. Not having heard about TGM is a waste but it's plausible because their period together was short. Not that I can't advise you listening to Proper-Sheppard's actual band project - I see it as a logical continuation - but TGM was special. There are enough music lovers around who know that - but not the big crowd. Just look at the reviews on Amazon of Scenes... The thirty-two people that have reviewed it ALL gave a perfect score of five stars... Completely mind-blowing!
It was 1991 and three guys from San Diego, California, had released an EP by the name of Purity. What else could you expect from a band with the name The God Machine? Jimmy Fernandez and Ronald Austin backed up Proper-Sheppard's songwriting skills with their powerful rhythm section. "Basically our name only reflects the issue of our generation in religious questions", drummer Austin told the German music magazine Visions around march 1993. "It has nothing to do with Christian conviction nor blasphemy."
The high-school friends originated from the fast-growing suburb of San Diego, Chula Vista, where they had played in the new-wave band Society Line. They found themselves now living in the UK since a year with London as their base-camp from where they wanted to invade the music world. San Diego, a coastal town at the Mexican border, couldn't offer them any connection with a music scene - if there was any - so eventually they took the courageous step to leave. In the same Visions of march 1993, bass player Fernandez remembered America to be "a mental ghetto", where politicians even write the history books. Proper-Sheppard admitted: "Once you're there, the world around you stops existing. Instead of information, they feed you with propaganda and manipulated, fake news." But weren't those pre-Facebook and -Twitter times? "London maybe wasn't that much better, at least it was different for us", Fernandez knew. "Principally all governments are dictated by the money of multinationals... it's a crazy world!" Music seemed the only way out.
Their first official gig under the name The God Machine, they played in Camden, London, in january 1991. Early live performances were improvised. But this would form and spice up their recordings. It's really remarkable how powerful a three-piece sometimes can be in rock music. TGM often created a noisy wall of sound to give expression to their feelings. Yet in their noise there somehow was enough melody. Their debut EP Purity earned them a contract with Fiction Records, the label that was known due to The Cure. In the short period from 1991 till 1994 TGM would go on to release another EP The Desert Song, the Ego cd and 12", the Home cd's, 7" and 12" and - most important - two full albums. The first one, Scenes from the Second Storey (1993) is a real jewel in the alternative rock segment. The second, One Last Laugh in a Place of Dying (1994) is seen by some as one the greatest albums of the 90's alternative scene. It's probably a more open and mature album, but One Last Laugh... leaves a bit the darker industrial sound of its predecessor and takes on already the more acoustic direction Proper- Sheppard went with Sophia. Of course it has its moments but overall I'm convinced Scenes... was the better album. The reason could be that the pressure on the band was less big for One Last Laugh... as it was for their debut.
Noble virtues
Anyhow, things for The God Machine ended abruptly with the death of bass player Fernandez who suddenly died from brain hemorrhage in 1994. It was in Prague, where they had been since the end of 1993 recording the songs for their second album, in the basement of the art nouveau municipal house. On the 23rd may of 1994, with the recording and the mixing finished, Jimmy had to go to hospital suffering strong headaches. He fell in a coma and died that very day because of an inoperable brain tumour. Consequently the band broke up. Not a fan of major labels, Robin Proper-Sheppard founded his own record label The Flower Shop Recordings, whereon he had been working as of 1993. Firstly he wanted to work with other bands but from 1996 his long-term band/project Sophia came into life. Until now, he has been living furthermore in European cities as London, Brussels and Berlin. New York, where he lived for six months prior to his move to Europe, lacked him the space to live comfortably.
Ronald Austin converted himself to the movie business as a scenario-writer, film-maker and -producer in London. It was not until 2020 that Austin returned to music with his project Mercylane.
Jimmy Fernandez let his bass often alternate between supplementing the guitar riffs and counterbalancing melodies
The death of Fernandez changed the life of Proper-Sheppard and Austin, they said in the German magazine Visions of november 1994. "I'm not the man anymore that I was before", the singer-songwriter admitted. Drummer Austin tried to see the positive side of events: "Had Jimmy discovered his disease earlier, he wouldn't have travelled the world with us and experienced so many things. As such he was able in his short life to realise at least a couple of dreams."
"In the music and entertainment business," Robin proceeded, "you live in a complete unrealistic world. Being pulled out from there suddenly, being caught icecold and then be set back into reality creates enormous problems with which it's extremely difficult to deal." The end of the band was not only due to the emotional turmoil left over from Fernandez' death but as much because of the logical consequence of the year-long God Machine philosophy. Noble virtues as honesty, openness and naturality were written in capitals.
"We always had a particular relationship with our fans", Proper-Sheppard recalled. "Even if we didn't talk personally with them, so developed through the music an intimate connection, a mutual understanding. We didn't want to simply disappear leaving obscurity over the whole history. We wanted the chapter God Machine to be ended in a positive way and gratifiedly say goodbye. In addition, we have organised an exposition of Jimmy's photographs in Charlotte Street, London, at the end of september (1994) and have spoken the press one last time. We didn't want for so long to tinker around with another bass player till he sounded like Jimmy. The God Machine was from the beginning on us three against the rest of the world, more like a work collective. We wouldn't feel well to continue working under that name because the band existed solely out of that common relationship."
Double LP
TGM's debut album is long with its 78 minutes and alongside cd it also came out on double LP. Scenes... features remakes of four tracks of the earlier EP's: 'Home', 'The Blind Man' and 'Purity' of the Purity EP (1991) and 'The Desert Song' of the eponymous EP (1992). Their music could not be put in a genre box - their biggest concern - it just stands on itself. "Too heavy for the indie crowd, and too indie for the heavy fans", as Proper-Sheppard explained in Belgian Peek-A-Boo-Magazine in april 2016. Or too English for the Americans and too American for the English.
Very spacious and atmospheric, very intense and non-compromising yet melodic in a way. Difficult to define, they dealt in earblowing doom structures in the best Black Sabbath tradition combined with quieter harmonic parts. With use of reverberation and distortion for creating a desolate, aloof or unwilling emotion. As said the band fought with genres, alternating heavy music with spacious, hypnotic moments.
Opener 'Dream Machine' sets the standard for the next 72 minutes to come. "Are you lost?" a voice of an older man asks. It appears to be a sample from the film adaptation of the book The Sheltering Sky. The dismay of the guitarist-singer might just be the trigger for the guitar overdrive. Slow strumming repeats while the older man keeps reciting his philosophical insight. Firm drum beating enters the song before the guitar starts riffing in a blastful noisy way with the drums and bass militarily in synchronisation. What the hell is this? An airy voice talks about an imaginary friend, which is TV. The thumping rhythm is being maintained. This unique sound is powerful! The song tends to sound somewhat industrial yet the voice betrays a poppy side to a stark subjectivism. Then the drum part takes on an accelerated tribal rhythm before reaching a climax when the piercing voice comes back in, singing mysterious lyrics, with the bass also on the forefront, audibly swinging.
John Peel Session for BBC Radio 1 on 21.04.1992. Note at 15:02 the outstanding 'Double Dare' cover of Bauhaus, the new-wave band, the genre where their roots lay. The legendary John Peel did by then already know it was 'timeless' but also very personal music. Their heavy use of reverb is striking which gives them a metallic sound colour. ('Commitment' - 'Desert Song' - 'Double Dare' - 'Pictures Of A Bleeding Boy')
Flash-back... After short stints in Texas, Westminster, New York and Connecticut in search for an experience, Proper-Sheppard, Fernandez and Austin decided to go to Manchester in England. There the manager of Happy Mondays, who had showed interest in their music and invited them, was unfindable. From being out of cash in Manchester, with only two acoustic guitars and a drum kit, the group members needed firstly to relocate to Amsterdam to earn some money with busking before heading back to England. A friend had invited them to Camden, in London. There they ended up into a room in a squat they shared among them three. Out of options and in survival mode, the basement of the squat soon became their refuge. The lovable Europe and respectively London underground still seemed the promised land from where they could start a succesful musical career. After a year of hard work, they earned their first gig in the Camden neigbourhood. The few songs on the first TGM EP Purity had by then come into existence after much improvising. They knew they had to put all their effort in the making of that EP, having no legal working permits for England.
The God Machine explored themes like isolation and anger, typical for many bands of the early 90's, and spiced it with a snuff of mysticism
The opportunity offered by Eve Recordings in 1991 was their date with destiny. Despite their uncertain lives they would not choose to go for easy pop. Edgy might be the word to describe their feelings, thoughts, lifestyle and - logically - the music they produced. It was a full blow at something different, with all their power left, on hard industrial rhythms and existential lyricism soaked in despair. That were the prerequisites of their masterpiece album.
Staying loyal
The Purity EP made the breakthrough for recording a full album for Fiction Records. A unique trio had finally found their way to a legendary album. As by now they were supported by the record company to promote their output by gigging over Europe in 1992 and 1993. They subsequently went on a UK Tour, a European Tour, a North American Tour and a Summer Tour with succes.
The God Machine while playing funny music on the tour bus
Live they were as uncompromising as on record, playing ever so loud and in most indoor venues they did not want a lightshow, only a minimalistic dark red light was enough. Their star rose in the alternative music scene and what followed would be a new record. TGM travelled to Prague for recording a successor to Scenes... Alas, it was there they met with drama and misfortune. Bass player Jimmy Fernandez was hospitalised after complaining of severe headaches. That same day he went into a coma from which he never awakened, as he had been the victim of a brain hemorrhage due to a tumour. Soon after, Proper-Sheppard and Austin very decisively called TGM a day staying loyal to the heritage of their friend. That is why The God Machine remained relatively obscure to the great public. Their artistic life was short. Not much fuzz was made about their ending as they didn't themselves.
Luckily for the fans they had already recorded the songs for the second album in Prague. These songs were published in their existing state. The boys didn't want any additional editing. Untitled tracks from the recording sessions were given their short work-titles such as 'The Love Song' or 'The Flower Song'. The record eventually was given the title One Last Laugh in a Place of Dying. Sober white artwork put the emphasis on what was inside, the dedication 'For Our Friend Jimmy'. One Last Laugh... was a bit softer than its predecessor but to some as great as the debut. What The God Machine left behind in the first place is great musical art. Some traces of genious... Sometimes this happens with the right people at certain circumstances. While few people know how great the music is The God Machine made, many don't. That's why it's important to keep the legacy of this band upright!
This is TGM's version of The KLF hit 'What Time Is Love' which was a B-side to the 'Home' single (1993). You'll hear an explosion of noise at a wild tribe's rhythm.
Now back to Scenes... The bass-driven 'She Said' starts furiously somewhere between post-punk and industrial music like someone is mad with rage. Then the song changes tempo as if slowly going to a climax with hypnotic singing. Proper-Sheppard is really angry now: "It's all up TO YOU". And finally the song reaches a short harmonic catharsis but no lyrical one. The pure poetic wisdom was found then already: "She said you can paint your sky any colour".
'The Blind Man' is another intense tune that balances between subtle, stiller, intimistic, melodic acoustic guitar parts and a loud mesmerizing rhythm and drive powerhouse. The guitar adds a great upwhipping, ascending solo to it before drum and roaring bass burst out into a raging cataclysm. It is never loudness for being loud and that can be just as beautiful an expression. Could this be the best band of the nineties? Regularly overwhelming, thunderous mallet headed drumming and pounding bass work that match with the sharp, slicing, still controlled but slightly ethereal sounding vocals and the confronting, fatalistic poetic lyricism, salted with well chosen effects, atmospherics and samples that add to a cinematic sphere... Yeah, that must be the magic formula. But remember... it's easier said than done!
In 'I've Seen The Man' a repetitive, doomy guitar drones back and forth - probably on a cold and windy day - while eerie sounds could symbolise the alienation from God, what might be the song's theme. Proper-Sheppard admits he "stands dead in the centre with nothing at all", testifying of his loss of faith against multiple preachers or prophets.
'The Desert Song' is a mysterious song with samples - middle eastern influences and bits of music - that challenge the imagination from beginning till the end and the voice of the singer not getting far beyond these sounds. TGM brought sampling in the beginning of the nineties clearly to a new level. But what's the singer really transmitting? Next to the music itself, that's an interesting aspect about TGM: you want to know what Robin is singing about because you feel he's got something real to say. This must be about God again. Eventually we'll realise that lyrics do not always need to be understood to be effective in the song. In fact that's their attraction. Recurrent samples and human sounds created an ambient but somehow distant sphere that's mixed with the dynamic and fast repetition of the rhythm section tones. 'The Desert Song' is worthwile to compare with the first version off the 1992 EP. A bit longer, less heavier, more ethereal, it differs quite a lot although the main structure was kept. A female voice repeats: "Why people are destroyed by lack of knowledge because doubt has rejected knowledge". In the desert one can only overthink these insights or be introspective, just like monks (and probably like Proper-Sheppard) do. We even heard them praying and chanting in the song. All in a subtle mix.
In search of redemption
'Home' starts and ends with an excerpt from a national female vocal choir out of Bulgaria. It is a song wherein Proper-Sheppard blames God again for something but he talks in riddles, which he often does on this album. In the video you can see the song is about religion and its influence on humans while you can watch the band play in a big rusty cellar. I don't think there is another album video, so enjoy the 'Home' one...
You can feel the anger and energy they exhibit. The band shows off their regular ingredients: fury, soft-loud dynamics, melodic noise and repetition. Austin beating heavily his tribal drums, Fernandez enjoying the loud groove and Proper-Sheppard, as fervent as a religious preacherman, giving it direction by his sustainful guitar playing, always searching for a kind of redemption. Their hard rock was dynamic and attractive due to Fernandez' and Austin's familiarity as a rhythm section. Sampling is well panned, subtly mixed and never excessive, it brings a surplus to their well trained sound.
The band released several versions of 'Home' in 1993 among which this cd with three covers as a B-Side on ('Double Dare' - 'All My Colours' - 'Fever')
'It's All Over' could be the band's life story. It starts with a simple but sad sounding bassline with the singer slowly between talking and singing a lullaby. Austin touching his cymbals gently with his mallet heads. You think the eruption of noise is coming, but it's only a soft guitar that adds to the sphere of melancholy. This is the way Robin went with his solo work, so he could have achieved this with this band too, as they prove again they can play reflective, still ballads as wonderful as loud hardrock. "Why do all the things have to change? Just when they mean the most. It always happens that way", accepts Proper-Sheppard his young man's fear. His life questions may have troubled him but he shows he moves on instead of staying in the emotion. The song proved to be a prophesy of their fate soon to happen.
'Temptation' starts heavy on drum and bass with otherworldly guitar effects coming into play and full of noise. It's like industrial programming imprinted on your mind, except TGM makes the music here sound with rock instruments only and very hard. The pounding bass dominates in this instrumental with the guitar player as master of the noise.
After a soft acoustic intermezzo, the song 'Out' claustrophobically explodes as we know TGM can and does. This is fin-de-siècle angst or spleen, call it what you want. It could easily have been named Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness. The singer's call for release is just so terrifying as was he locked up in a small dark dungeon in the Middle Ages. Who will come to the rescue? Liberation is all he wants and fast please... 'Out' just shows how intense this band felt. The confrontation with the abyss of the self is not avoided, even being searched for. Definitely a highlight on this album but their simply are no lows on it.
"To let the fantasy flow you eventually need the right setting. If in the end the record shouldn't sell, we at least had our fun!" - Robin Proper-Sheppard
The boys in London probably spent all their money to material and effect gear because they only had two acoustic guitars and a drum kit with them upon arrival. 'Ego' is proof of that. They evolved so enormously in short time and must have invested everything in their sound. Society Line is already far gone. Some mean riffing impregnates the sound totally matching the airy, effect transformed vocals. Fernandez strums like a mad man on his bass, clinically synchronised with the drums. The three musicians composed a heavy, metal sound full of rhythm. Little synth touches bringing heaven over the dark abyss. It's all trademark TGM! This is just as great art as it was made in the nineteenth century by some lucid poets. Proper-Sheppard's struggle with his ego - like all artists - is documented forever here. He just calls it his beast.
Funny interview at Rhein-rock in Tanzbrunnen, Köln on august 21st of 1993 followed by live capture of 'Ego'
Talking about beasts, 'Seven' is the monster track on the album with its nearly seventeen minutes. Starting slowly, this song builds up from a gentle bassline like in 'It's All Over'. At 3:15 the sound erupts a bit but not completely, the noise remains soft to not fully disturb the melody. It remains repetitive and fastens, leaving the emphasis to the lyrics, until the song gets back to the slow bassline and Robin enters his wah-wah pedal into the improvisation. It keeps on feeling relaxed - although the lyrics aren't - with a discrete organ while the band puts in some ripples of clarinet too at the end. Proper-Sheppard is reproaching but the long extended and slowly murmuring instruments counterbalance that perfectly. The band just feels where they can go in experiment as in improvisation. They know what a song needs at a certain moment.
We have waited eleven tracks before the absolute peak in this collection. 'Purity' came already out in 1992 on the similarly named EP. Rewritten it brings a touchingly beautiful string arrangement into the foreground while Proper-Sheppard lightly plucks his acoustic guitar at the back. His love for strings and acoustics is apparent, especially seen in the light of his future project. There's some viola and cello in it as well. Then a silence in between before the distortion explodes near halfway with the frontman more furious than ever: "If I show you the pain will you show me the purity". Wounded he searches for the pure beauty of redemption in God. This is the apotheosis of the record, nine minutes long! In the meantime drum and bass get driven to their top, fighting for existence. Very spacious and ethereal, the old version on the Purity EP doesn't differ much from the album version. It's only a little bit closer to heaven:
'The Piano Song', at the end of this long album with Ron playing, is a worthy goodbye accompanied with soft bass touches while room sounds prove its authenticity. A bit sad and melancholic, it is autumnally coloured like the well-chosen minimalistic sleeve.
I listened a lot to Scenes... since it came out and I can only conclude that it's a complete album with no flying off the rails. Recorded in London, engineer Kenny Jones did a great job mixing it all so well. The band admitted they had all the artistic freedom from Fiction they could've wished for. This payed off because Scenes... is no more or less than a record for life and just stunning as a debut! "To let the fantasy flow you eventually need the right setting. If in the end the record shouldn't sell, we at least had our fun!" Robin said to Visions mag in march 1993.
Never cheap
With strings on 'Purity', clarinet on 'Seven', choral inserts in 'Home' and piano in the endsong, TGM shows an array of softer styles to contrast with the harder parts. These softer means were also on Last Laugh... and Proper-Sheppard's own to explore further with Sophia. TGM made deeper and intenser songs than most of the other rock bands around at that time. Perhaps only Pearl Jam went even deep on their debut, as dearall Eddie Vedder had a difficult start in life he needed to ventilate. As with Vedder, Robin meaned what he sang, his emotions were true and that's made a difference. These guys expressed musically what they felt inside which aids to their authenticity. The God Machine was never cheap! To end with I want to counter a remark that keeps coming back: this band is so gruesomely underrated... No, they're not underrated, they just left the arena too soon because of tragedy and fate! But many have kept them in their minds and hearts...
---- About songwriting ----
"Not everything we made is as dark as always was said. We have, in our sound world, absolutely processed life and joy", ascertained Robin in Visions magazine of november 1994.
"Mainly I don't know where the influences of our music come from. For a certain part, the intense atmosphere where we created the music in could be responsable. There are also many elements in our sound that I haven't understood myself until now. Presumably exactly these circumstances make us interesting. From the secrets of our songs we can only explain the tiniest bit. They simply come to you, you say "hello" and live with it. It's wonderful to lean back at hearing one's own music and always again discover something new from which you can't explain the origin."
"A song for me is in no way steerable. It just passes by. I don't decide over it if I write a happy or a sad song. In the end this decision eventually strikes the listener. Every human percieves music in a totally different form. Everything relies on individual meaning."
---- Interview 120 Minutes (1993) ----
"We never had a setlist", Robin said, a bit moving restless, to interviewer Paul King. "It's a bit more spontaneous than that", he added. "It's quite free, but it's not all improvisation cause you never know what the night's gonna be like. We decide what song we're gonna start with and then you just kinda have to go with the energy, go with the experiences. The songs are always changing so much, like a gentle soft song we want for twenty minutes when it's original only three or four minutes and a hard song that may end up lasting two minutes when it's supposed to be an eight minute song. It's always growing!" In the interview it's clear Austin and Fernandez let their talkative singer have most of the word. They probably preferred talking with their instruments.
No money, no instruments. "We didn't bring any instruments", Proper-Sheppard continued.
"We weren't exactly The God Machine when we got here, we were just three people out for an experience more than anything. All we had was a bag of clothes." In a Swedish interview the bard said: "It's a long story", recalling the past. "It was more of an accident we ended up in London. We hit the plan to travel around Europe experiencing things. And when we got to London we had ran out of money. We just decided that rather than going back to America and getting back into the routine of American life, we would stay in England and experience it for a little while."
"We went to London for a day and to Amsterdam for a month," Austin soft-voicedly recalled, "just for an experience".
"Were you affected by what was going on in Europe at that time?" King asked next. "We were more affected by the three of us living in London and not really having anything. Being in a completely different environment, only having each other, just kinda being alone... That influenced our music and influenced us as people. We didn't really know what was going on and found ourselves here because there wasn't any other place to go to. After a while we decided to stay", Robin answered.
"In San Diego we felt a bit seperate, it was like a real L.A. glam thing over there. We were a four-piece back then and we didn't fit in at all. No question going to L.A... Forget that! It's not where it's at", the drummer ended.
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TGM opening Pukkelpop's main stage on 28 august of 1993. A great document, rich in colour and sound! Setlist: 'Dream Machine' / 'She Said' / 'Ego' / 'Alone' / 'Mama' / 'Seven' / 'Home'
The God Machine -- ALBUM DISCOGRAPHY
• Scenes from the Second Storey (1993,
Fiction Records)
• One Last Laugh in a Place of Dying (1994, Fiction Records)
Live @ the Astoria London, march 17th 1993 for The Beat. Everything was backing track except the vocals. But it's great camera work and this time a full lightshow. ('Ego' - 'I've Seen The Man')
27.06.2022