Friday Cheese: Big Machines In The Sky July 29, 2011

By now, I've definitely belabored the point about how so much of techno in the 90's was all about the moment, and had as much depth as a kiddie pool. The problem was, that if you were in the overwhelming minority, creating beautiful and amazing music that still fell under the same umbrella as Musical Bag Of Skittles Number 37, then breaking through to a wider audience usually just never happened. 

I first heard this song when it was played live... I was seeing Moby play live, in 1997, and Juno Reactor was opening. We got in just about halfway through, and I was floored... but I'd also heard many a techno song that seemed great over large speakers and in a venue, only to be a collection of tinny little "doot doot" noises when I got the disc. But part of what I loved about the genre was the entire panning for gold aspect, and so the next day I picked up the album on the way home... and this song came on: 

Listening to this song, it's no wonder that later so much of his music ended up as part of soundtracks - because the first time I heard it, I could imagine giant machines in the sky, pulsing along to unknown energy, shrouded by dark forboding clouds crackling with lightning. It was practically like being a conduit for something else, rising up through the floorboards and through me, sparking out the top of my head. And that's how some of the best music can make you feel... like you're part of something huge, even if you're just the most microscopic speck in a collection of living cogs, gears, and wheels. 

And it's still a great fucking song.