The Hopeful Machines
BT
BT is like Sade, he puts out albums when he’s got something to say. Constantly striving to reinvent and innovate, BT is a producer/artist/programmer whose name alone turns heads. I remember reading about the reaction Tori Amos had to her manager when she first heard his treatment of her vocals on their 1996 collaboration, “Blue Skies.” It was something like, “Holy shit, you have to hear this…” His sound has been imitated endlessly since his mainstream recognition — which I’m sure in no small way motivates his perpetual progress in sound and audio engineering. Following This Binary Universe, on which he played with very extended track times and purely instrumental soundscapes, These Hopeful Machines feels like a merger of that intention with the pop sensibilities of 2003’s Emotional Technology. The double-disc album contains 12 songs total, most of which clock in at over 10 minutes, and blend his passions for gorgeous ambience atop complex beats, and the dance-rock hybrid that will always be his hallmark. BT does his own vocals amidst guest performances by Christian Burns, Andrew Bayer, Jes, Kirsty Hawkshaw, Ulrich Schnauss, Rob Dickinson, and The Psychedelic Furs.
