- The Mexican label celebrates ten years of cutting-edge club music with 90 minutes of cutting-edge club music.
- Infinite Machine has mirrored the evolution of what we variously call experimental or deconstructed club music. The label was instrumental in the early grime-inspired, make-as-loud-as-a-racket-as-you-can arms race (think broken glass samples and ballroom rhythms), and its then-unusual home base of Mexico City pointed to the truly global nature of this movement, breaking beyond the usual hubs of Western Europe, the US and Canada. Then Infinite Machine turned its attention to a newer sound, inspired by both the pacing and sound design of big-budget films. The music became less focused on the dance floor, wrought with new ideas and themes (nicely dovetailing with the rise of conceptronica). Now, ten years in, Infinite Machine is something of an incubator for some of the scene's most exciting producers, including Galtier, Yilan, Laughing Ears and more. The label's anniversary compilation feels like the victory lap that it deserves, highlighting the roster of forward-thinking producers it's built up and, in typical fashion, showcasing a whole bunch of new ones, too.
If Infinite Machine has a sound in 2021, it's something rooted in the swing of dembow and the rise of other dancehall-influenced rhythms, though the music on Infinite Machine 10 Years feels too borderless for any one label to stick. How do you categorize Laughing Ears' track, "30°N," and its slow, seductive groove, accented by percussive vocal grunts and a Shackleton-style bassline? Or Gaul Plus's addictive "Motorcycle Angel," which sounds a bit like Low Jack doing house—distorted, funky, a little rough around the edges. Sistema Aero loads up a trancey groove with trippy hand percussion, while Kush Arora delivers another incredible Only Now track with the huge, pseudo-metal blasts of "Forged." With its compressed vocals, bouncy drums and gunshot cocks, it references all of the label's eras in one ferocious banger.
There are so many other highlights—taking notes for my first few listens, it felt like I underlined every single new track as a major light. There's more: the heavy, rolling techno of Ma Sha Ru, Xiao Quan's regal stagger, label staple Galtier's lopsided funk, packed with wiggly modular synth sounds. If I had to pick one absolute favorite, though, it might be from newcomer (and All Centre alumnus) Duswunder, who builds a slippery beat around a pattern that sounds like trap gone IDM with the incredible "Black Bile."
It's funny to think that, at ten years old, Infinite Machine is something of an institution in this corner of dance music—it has always felt like a scrappy upstart pushing the weirdest music from the newest artists. Infinite Machine 10 Years confirms that the mission is still the same. So many of its best tracks come not from its most closely associated producers but newer, younger artists given a chance on this prominent release from a now prominent label. It's tempting to use a cliché and call this music the future of the club, but that's not really it—this is the here and now, and it sounds great. For the future, you'll have to watch out for whatever Infinite Machine puts out next year.
Tracklist01. Benfika - Reflejo
02. Matías Contreras - Rizoooo
03. Galtier - My Mess Is A Face
04. Only Now - Forged
05. Egroj - UPS
06. Sistema Aero - Virtual Rave Destruction
07. Laughing Ears - 30°N
08. Bungalovv - Alacran
09. Xiao Quan - The Vengeful Spirit Of Iron Fist
10. Gaul Plus - Motorcycle Angel
11. Avernian - Malleable
12. Duswunder - Black Bile
13. Ma Sha Ru - Volcanic December
14. El irreal Veintiuno - Dogma
15. Daniel Ruane - ZZZZZ
16. Renslink - Sister Above
17. Yilan - Cortisol
18. Softmatter - Atemporal
19. W3C - Templar