These Hopeful Machines

Album title: These Hopeful Machines (2010)
Artist: BT
Label: Nettwerk
Songs disc 1: (1) Suddenly (2) The Emergency (3) Every Other Way (4) The Light in Things (5) Rose of Jericho (6) Forget Me
Songs disc 2: (1) A Million Stars (2) Love Can Kill You (3) Always (4) Le Nocturne de Lumière (5) The Unbreakable (6) The Ghost In You

Author

By Brian Palmer

Publish Date

Feb. 27, 2010

These Hopeful Machines is 112 minutes of tasty dance cuts, driving guitars, skyscraping vocals, and the trademark glitches and breakbeats that have made BT a dynamic, creative musical force since the mid-'90s. Beautiful atmospherics, lush soundscapes, and impressive guest vocalists abound. And with the forays he has made into rock, hip-hop, jazz, and film scoring in recent years, this is his first true dance album in over a decade, which many fans will appreciate.

"Suddenly" is a powerhouse electronica anthem that is catchy without being inane, typifying much of this double album's content. Trance tracks like "A Million Stars" and guitar-driven ditties like "Always" give the album musical variety.

Machines avoids the unfortunate byproducts of the thud-thud-thud-repeat school of dance music. In "Love Can Kill You," where the title is sung throughout and followed by the apt counterpoint that "love can save us all," the listener is given a delicious dichotomy to chew on while grooving to the beats. Most artists don't trust their audience enough to make this move, so kudos to BT.