The concept of this album reminds me of an idea I once had, many moons ago...
that we had reinvented ourselves to the point where we had forgotten our own true origins. Now wouldn't monkeys working on a symbiotic production line fit in nicely with that?
Now, Syntax Error, that's something an old programmer can associate with, nice track. March of the Sybots was good and bold, almost revolutionary in its resonance. WYSIWYG, I think is too arrogant for the likes of this artist they don't need that because the talent is evident. Another favourite acronym in the trade was RTFM, which mean 'read the f*cking manual). Anyway, it's not an arrogance at all but a mild-mannered clicking and whirring, with an occasional nice squelch.
Data Transfer Protocol seems more serious by comparison, which, in it's day, would and probably still does (I just notice it less the bigger my interface gets). Tasty interpretation on what is after all, like drying paint. Which again, can be said of Taking The Bus, I've been on many bus journeys to work. I always took a book with me.
Digital Daydream has a lovely resonance to it, nicely structured and laced with lattices of sound that adorn it, like a Christmas tree. Sometimes that's all one has to look forward too. If I had a pound sterling for everytime I've said 'Always Keep A Backup', and the one time I did, it went wrong and I lost everything. Such is the nature of computers, in our image...
Tranquilizer works amazingly well, from the outset. Nice one. 'Couldn't this lengthy therapy, be replaced by tranquilizing drugs?' AFAIK more upbeat, activating, motivating. Liked the track, but didn't understand the scene here. Hard Drive evocative from the start, with some nice sound bytes on the way. Made me think of Tron, I liked that visual interpretation.
Analog Emotion is what I used to call 'floating bugs', the ghost in the machine. Suitably put in electrodub musical terms, thanks. Pixel Perspective, is that the 'ghost' looking at me? Nice upbeat track. As for System Restore, he did the back up...
Lastly, the title track Mechanical Monkeys... yep, I can see it, I've even had the job once, long ago.
Sometimes a concept can spoil the surprise of what you can gain from music, the music broke out of the boundary of banality set as the scene and stood up for itself in the end. And such preamble can make a review a close-ended conversation. I could just say, 'The end was achieved'. However, I'm somewhat averse to someone telling me what to do, so I used my own powers of assessment to make my own mind up. I just couldn't control myself!-)
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