Haujobb
The Machine In The Ghost
DIGITAL (2024)
"The Machine in the Ghost" marks HAUJOBB's impressive tenth studio album that is again different from all its predecessors. The Leipzig based duo plainly refuses to do the same thing twice. What sets "The Machine in the Ghost" apart is the prominent use of fieldwork recordings to create the sounds for this album. To achieve the desired effects, HAUJOBB used a mix of software and hardware -- the latter in the shape of everyday items. This deliberate nod to a time with less software and more analogue shifting of the dials complements the theme of "The Machine in the Ghost" with a retro touch, yet without indulging in mere nostalgia for its own sake. The album revolves around the highly charged relationship between mind and matter, analogue and digital. When HAUJOBB were founded as a trio in the West German city of Bielefeld, their main influences came from the Vancouver school of industrial, in particular SKINNY PUPPY and FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY. This is audible on their early full-length "Homes & Gardens" (1993), but it did not take HAUJOBB long to become themselves regarded as figureheads of a modern electronic industrial sound. On the following albums, "Freeze Frame Reality" (1995) and "Solutions for a Small Planet" (1996), the Germans moved away from their Canadian roots and began to amalgamate IDM (intelligent dance music) with industrial and EBM. This catapulted the Germans onto the international scene and gained them cult status in the US. After HAUJOBB became a duo, they continued to have a strong impact and in particular their 2011 self-released album "New World March" is widely regarded as another milestone. With "The Machine in the Ghost", HAUJOBB have created another exciting chapter in their remarkable career. At the very beginning of the next industrial and creative revolution ignited by the furious rise of artificial intelligence, HAUJOBB still have their metaphorical musical fingers right on the pulse of time.