REVIEWS
Mach Fox – The Sky Is Falling
Remember the first day you heard Gary Numan’s “Hybrid” album? What you felt as you listened to your favoritest-ever Numan songs remade with modern musical technology? Remixed, remastered, re-everythinged, tunes like “Down in the Park” and “Are Friends Electric” became new again. What if all of our favorite 80’s acts were able to do the same thing, and then collaborate on an EP?
Enter Mach Fox.
The Sky Is Falling is new. It is different. There are a lot of disjoint moments as the beat does one thing, his guitar another and his voice yet another different thing, but this is what makes this recording unique. What happens as one listens is similar to when trying a new dish. Just as we try to put our finger on “What’s in this?” one finds themselves wondering “What does Mach Fox remind me of?”
Mach creates a collage of sounds reminiscent of Numan, Bowie, Murphy and Sisters of Mercy simultaneously. That much is clear. The surf rock driving guitar beat of “Like the Dragon” provides the feeling of tumbling and stumbling forward as he warns us about drinking another man’s beer, a major party foul. Nu Dead Pretty’s electronic drum line is accompanied by guitars that sound very similar to something Duran Duran might have concocted back in the days of “Wild Boys.”
Other subtle underpinnings of favorite 80s bands exist throughout, pushed through a modern makeover to provide clarity of recording and fuller sounds. Regardless of who he reminds us of, Fox performs a solid EP that delivers anew those sounds that we loved so very much in the rock of days gone by.
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Mach Fox "Nu Dead Pretty" (Gothic) afmusic
Take Fox's "Nu Dead Pretty" is a cheerfully chaotic return to his introspective music, fantasy and science, past and future united. This EP contains six different interpretations of the title track, which in essence taken from the song and his soul was captured sent to each of the songs. The song is amazing keep in its original version, a gothic song that combines elements of many classic genre style. From the guitar (The Cult, The Cure) on the vocals (David Bowie) to the sequences that remind me sometimes of The Cruxshadows. This song would have fit well into the 80s or 90s and would be in this time a real candidate for a hit was. As the millennium at this looks to be seen. This sounds on this EP are further enhanced by very different remixes. Time the song comes in the electronic NDW robe, then dark with piano and a 90's influenced dance floor version is.Quite interesting in all its versions. Not all of my taste, but if would give me a time without a complete album remixes ... very happy! www.myspace.com / machfox (michi)
from German site Amboss-Mag.de -Aug 2 2010
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Set the controls for mirror ball and strobe light, where the dancers are mysterious and the shadows skitter shatter, conceal and deceptively reveal. This is nightclub music with a dark pulsing heart, and a pop grin, it is alien rock Guitar shot out at girls with fizzy drinks and sly sweet smiles. It is post new romantic, nostalgic new wave twisted modern.
Waste The Right combines that ‘dance with sadness’ thrill, and incorporates the militaristic almost nihilistic grooves of Nitzer Ebb (a cover of Hear Me Say) though adding an ironic funk to the proceedings.
Build It Down (released the same year as WTR) now has a detached sensuality to it, the guitar is slinkyFluid, it sneaks and crawls all over the melodies, and Miss K adds a chilled eroticism to the mix, making the songs of fright and fear and longing ambiguously seductive. Their cover of the Kinks ‘All Day and All Of The Night’ skews the sentiment in much the same sardonic way Wall Of Voodoo once did when they covered Ring Of Fire.
Dr Night is the artist virtually alone, and in Dying To Save he delivers his first warped epic, skittish samples drift over a trancelike journey, the tense guitar and sleepy vocals recall both travel and sleep merged into a beautiful blur.
This song is re-imagined on the next EP, Last Planet, and there is now a power to the artist’s writing and production, he is comfortable there in his strange space and it shows, the ghost of Frank Tovey still haunts and pursues the songs souls, but these now are Mach Fox creations, set in the here and now, speeding calmly forward into the Night’s adventures.
Nu Dead Pretty is exuberant, electro warrior cool, wicked, the balance of raw and dirty balanced just right with the machine cruel, we have listened to the star being born slowly, delightful, with screams and shudders and glorious shrieks, with the composer adding his own remote narration, keeping us dancing, enticing us to think and perhaps even surrender.
These EPs are only the tip of the building that Mach Fox has built, is STILL building, go here-Follow the links and download these collections for your self. Or even better buy them (you make the price) http://machfox.bandcamp.com/
Let’s get some Electro on the charts ok!
by nbtmusic on August 2, 2010
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Mach FoX comes out of the Twin Cites electro-punk scene in Minneapolis and St. Paul. I have previously given my visitors a taste of them when I reviewed TC Electropunk. Here is their self-titled full length album which gives us a better look at this band that blends punk and techno.. The general focus is on the dance floor yet the vibes remain dark and a bit 80s electropop slick. “AXion FriXion” is dance floor worthy while “The Subversives” adds a nice funky edge to the darkwave feel. Overall, the album has a good sound and lot of interesting tracks for your listening and dancing pleasure.
Asides from the full album, the Mach FoX website has a number of equally free and legal EPs available. Yet the only one that really stands out on its own is The Last Planet EP. This is very different from their other EPs. It is a conceptual soundscape of three tracks and two remixes. The 21 minute EP is an interesting ambient experiment and worth a listen.
Mach FoX is available in VBR Mp3 and Ogg Vorbis format while The Last Planet is 320kbps MP3.
Download
Mach FoX
The Last Planet EP
POSTED BY Marvin ON 10.28.09 @ Free Albums Galore blog
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Now Mach Fox is a soloist singer who roams the digital wasteland and puts down a narrative of the best 21st century ballads that make you feel like you're in a Mad Max-ish type of scenario with its gloom and doom intravenous lyrical delivery.
However we've been a tad dickish about how we feel about Mach Fox's music, but he ought to know that we love it from ear to ear so there is no question! Mach buddy we love it...anythingI do believe that you can get yourselves some Buddha for your Ipods via the internet archivefrom Nerdy Frames blog March 2010
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Mach FoX - dancy, trancy electronica with a great 80s vibe. (Think Blondie, Yaz, Prince, or DAF.) There's something here for everyone to love, and this disc should keep you dancing. As Mach Fox is doing most everything right -- not the least of which is creating a niche as a showman who looks more like a life-size space movie action figure than a rock star -- it's a wonder he's not better known outside the electronic music scene. Mach (or Mark, as he's known to his friends) would also be a hit with fans on the indie rock scene. His female vocalist's voice at times recalls Annie Lenox at times, also not a bad thing.
David deYoung @ howwastheshow.com
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The evening was closed out by Mach FoX, a show-stopping performer whose stage presence and demeanor are so confidently punk, so powerfully fun that I felt a little cooler just for standing there and watching him. From his bio, it is said that Mach FoX is the quintessential Electro-Rocker, a glam punk who digs the roots, a true believer in the machine backbeat.I don't think I could agree more.
As soon as Mach FoX and his tribe of back-up musicians (Adam Powell and Dave Erickson of Thosquanta, along with the gorgeous TeA) took the stage, the entire room was bathed in smoke and neon lights. Dressed like a cross between a robot soldier and a Transformer, Mach FoX controlled the atmosphere of the room with his blinding Eletropunk, welcoming outsiders everywhere into his world and holding the entire room in his grasp.
Andrea Myers
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Welcome to New York, 1986. Or maybe it's Berlin, 1946. No matter the time period, the combination of the low-ceilinged Club Underground and the industrial sounds of Mach Fox challenge the ear's sense of place. Lead singer Mach Fox (dressed in robotic-blue shoulder pads) and his crew of gothy superstars debuted their self-titled release to a crowd of dancing fools. HowWasTheShow Assistant Editor Andrea Myers commented that Mach Fox looked like a Transformer, ready to morph into a car at any moment. Given the night, which included a pretty guitarist in a pleather skirt throwing plastic apes at the crowd, an aerobic electronic Frenchman and an impromptu co-ed How Was the Show meeting in the ladies' bathroom, I wouldn't have been surprised.
[Text by Zosia Blue] - posted April 9th 2oo6
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Mach FoX - selftitled
He wears masks on his shoulders and big, black goggles on his face – the better to electrify you with. He comes at you like Abobo with a drum machine. Mach FoX is on the frontlines as man and machine sonically duke it out, but which side is he on? The electro-rocker has brought his electronic mash-ups into 2006 with a new band and a new record, a self-titled collection of goth-tinged synthpop sounds that will have you dancing jerkily about in no time.
Camp and novelty are inevitable anytime humans put on the robot suit, but those things are fun and different and that's always a good thing.
Jenny Newgard - RIFT Magazine issue 14
Mach FoX
Though he used to be a member of the consciously kitschy space-age electro-pop band Manplanet, local electronica ace Mach Fox has taken a darker turn on his latest set of synth-heavy electro-punk. His new self-titled CD embraces the goth-industrial ethic of Ministry and a boatload of '80s-era groups like Killing Joke and Bauhaus. - the Onion (mpls.) - Volume 42 Issue 14 / April 6-12 2006
Mach FoX - Build it Down
Mach FoX, Miss Karen, and D-BOT are three gifted artists who’ve successfully meshed their talents with superior results---Mach FoX, a band well deserving of praise and quick attention for their contributions to the music scene of electro/punk and glam---they are REALLY good folks---man, are they REALLY good! (:
Review from Grave Comcerns E-zine
Written by Linda Dale MacLean
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Back in the '80s, then local band Information Society scored a club hit with the song "What's on your mind (Pure Energy)," but grew frustrated by a music scene that was generally uninterested in electronic music, eventually leaving town. They wouldn't have needed to do that today, when a thriving musical subculture of keyboard commandos is keeping electro-pop alive. One of the stalwarts of the scene is Mark Howard, a.k.a. Mach Fox, a former member of Manplanet whose recent work has leaned more toward dark techno than a Devo-esque sci-fi. The new "Build it down" is perhaps his most melodic yet, with a distinct Depeche Mode feel. At this CD-release show, Fox will offer a limited-edition, handmade black vinyl version of the album, along with the 12-track lagniappe "RemiX and Repeat".
From The Onion
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Mach FoX's new album "Build It Down" sounds like some long-lost release from the early days of pioneering British electronic label Mute Records. It's filled with retro-futuristic synths, chilly Euro vocals and, buried somewhere amid the squall, a keen sense for meaty hooks. Oh, and there's even a left-field remake of the Kinks classic "All Day and All of the Night." The CD-release show is tonight at Club Underground.
From the Pioneer Press twincities.com
Picks of the week
written by Ross Raihala
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A unique sense of style goes a long way in fashion and the same holds true for music. The retro-futuristic chic exemplified by Mach Fox is certainly favorable over the calculated Pop rock cash-grab of someone such as Lenny Kravitz, yet there are those that have wondered if it has artistic merit. I guess I find it difficult to imagine that reasonable individuals who have actually listened to all of this act's releases can deny that the artistic integrity is evident in the compositional skills, hooks displayed and delicious Pop sensibilities employed by Mark Howard.
From the onset Mach Fox seemed to carry a singular vision that embraced the technology of the present and married it, quite convincingly, to selective sounds from the past. This isn't just another techno "band" opting to go the easy route by programming everything into a sequencer, occasionally faking a "live" performance. The instrumentation is just as essential to the sound as are the synthetics. Listening to a Mach Fox CD, from the initial offering of assembled demos put out under the name "FuturePast" to their self-titled 2006 release, it's easy to recognize the subtly wicked sense of melody and teasingly astute attention to retrofitted stylistics. Mach Fox takes some of the best elements of music from the past and hardwires them to the sounds of today, wrapping it all up as a theatrical Matryoshka and peeling it away, layer by layer, for your aural satisfaction.
Build It Down doesn't seem so much like a progression from past efforts but more of an acknowledgment that the act is aware of the direction in which it wants to move. There's no new ground broken yet it's almost as though the CD serves as a springboard for something magnificent. Mach Fox is clearly "on the verge" of something, though thier full potential has yet to be quantified.
Things start out promising enough with "The ConneXion," a lush and gorgeous tune that embodies nearly all aspects of this band's sound. The playful electronic noises flirt with late-Seventies instrumental musical sensibilities and the matter-of-fact male vocals work in tandem with a breathy, unobtrusively feminine voice. The snappy beat heralds a mischievous attitude. All that's missing is the guitar, which is the primary focus of the title track with its impossibly catchy hook. If you don't pick up on it with the first listen subsequent spins will embed the licks of Howard's axe in your head. "Build It Down" isn't a perfect song with the uncertain vocal lines which seem more than a little clumsy and awkward but the focus on subtle avenues of melody through the instruments are what makes the music infectious and memorable. Even if you're initially unimpressed, listen again. The hooks will ultimately burrow their way inside. A kitschy cover of The Kinks' "All Day And All Of The Night" slows the passage of time in an effort to savor each moment, almost lending a creepy stalker feel to the proceedings and adding a new dimension to a well known joint.
The main criticism I have with Build It Down is the uneven mix. The vocals on most tracks are pushed much too forward, often eclipsing the intriguing instrumentation. Neither Howard nor female vocalist Karen Meyer possess particularly distinctive, or even impressive, voices. Yet, their presence is forced so far up front in the mix that it becomes a detriment to the overall quality of music this subtle and plaintive. Nowhere is it more evident than in the song "This City," where a cagey interplay between the musicians is lost in a vocal cavalcade which overpowers all else. It's the music in which we're most interested, not the repetitive phrases too often safely employed. Even so, the following track, "B4 It's Over," immediately redeems the entire offering by providing an impossibly catchy and irrefutably sweet affectation which affirms the Fox's status as one of the leaders in the current Electopunk scene.
Mach Fox should be noticed and followed. They're one of the better offerings in the Twin Cities area, without a doubt. Build It Down sounds like an important stepping stone to something greater and you should definitely check it out. Listening to their body of work affirms the belief that they may have a gorgeous space opera within them just waiting to be released. You're not going to want to miss a note.
Review from darktwincities.com
written by Christopher Roddy
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Mach FoX's "Build it Down," is a fun cross between the B52's, New Order and Interpol. The guitar is pure Dream Theater/Billy Idol cheese, but, is totally forgivable and warranted. Great track.
Lunch of Champions
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Mark Howard has been around the local music scene for a long time, playing with a few local rock bands, then ending up with the popular local space rockers Manplanet. Howard's music has evolved and grown into what the local scene has dubbed Electropunk, which is electronic music that is melded with the traditional rock band instruments.
I was thinking maybe the name Mach FoX came from some sort of military airplane, but Howard filled me in on where the name came from.
"Around 1996 I had a band called Silver Fox. I was, and still am, a big Ziggy Stardust fan, so we all had stage names. Mine was Mach Fox , and sometimes the band was called "Mach Fox and the Arachnids from Venus". I later kept that stage name when I joined Manplanet, and decided to use it for my solo project. It's also a nod to the musician John Foxx - who is another favorite. I later added the capitol "X" at the end of FoX as a strategic marketing ploy to make it stand out in print" said Howard.
The songs that populate the new album sound almost futuristic and retro at the same time and Howard spends quite a bit of time getting the sounds and songs to evolve naturally. His equipment list contains many old synthesizers, but much of his recording equipment involves newer technology. His guitar of choice is his Roland Guitar Synth, which he would like to have another of for a live back up. The other thing on his wish list is a live drummer who can play along with the electronic tracks.
Recording and writing go hand in hand for Howard who's writing process mixes well with the technology aspect.
"My recording process can vary - but generally I write as I record in the studio, and build the track as i go. I like to start with a drum and synth part, and see where I can take it, sort of let the track inspire the direction. Since I record at my home studio, The FoX Den , I have lots of time to experiment and mess about with the sounds and programming of the sequencer, with the actual arrangement usually coming last," said Howard.
Howard knows his limitations and enlisting other musicians and collaborators has served him well. He has had help on previous releases and on this new release he has enlisted MissK on vocals and D-bot on bass. Since the studio process involves so much experimentation and processing, Howard gets caught between going for a feeling and letting the mixing suffer. Luckily, his friend Severin24 who lives in France offered to mix it and Howard graciously accepted.
"Some songs took quite some time to get the mix just right, others were a breeze, and we were able to fix or re-record parts as needed. The new cd started out as an EP - but when my hardrive crashed, I decided to delay release and add a few more songs that would highlight MissK's vocals. I ended up mixing a few songs myself because I knew S24 had his own work to produce," said Howard.
Mach FoX never seems to be the same live band twice and with guest musicians and other surprises at the CD release show it won't be an exception.
"For the upcoming cd release show on Feb. 29th @ Club Underground we will be a four piece band - 2 guitars, bass, and synth. Justin from the band Kwang will be on lead guitar - we call him the "Justifier" - and hope to have him join us again in the future. On Feb. 29th you will also be treated to a free laser-lite show! There will also be 50 limited edition, "Build it down" cd's in handmade black vinyl covers available. It will include the bonus release "RemiX and Repeat" - which has 12 Mach FoX tracks remixed by artists from Japan, Sweden, France, USA, Canada, Poland, and the UK," said Howard.
Since both of us were in bands back in the day (early 90s), I wondered if any dreams of rock stardom still existed or if Howard was more like me and just played music for fun.
"Nothing has really changed from my perspective. I guess it's harder for me to find people who want to give it all up and go for broke. In the early to mid 90's some of the bands I played with had some label interest, etc, but even then I had modest goals - like paying the rent. Now with more independent labels than ever - I think my goal is to get the music heard. We aren't a "Hobby" band. I have also been trying to get some of my songs into movies - and would consider writing and producing music for others , or soundtrack work, which I have always been interested in doing," said Howard.
from RIFT magazineAbout Me
Mach FoXMach FoX - USA. Time warped supercharged electro punk with pop overtones... nightmares and lucid dreams... not defined in black and white or color... but analogue sweet analogue. Mach FoX delivers what underground 80s satellite radio can't.
