Hi, everyone. Insurance CEO here, the internet's busiest music nerd. And it's time for a review of this new Machine Girl album, MG Ultra.

Here we have a brand new album from Machine Girl, a music project founded by vocalist and producer Matthew Stephenson, later joining up with drummer Sean Kelly, whose very punk and breakbeat infused style, has provided over the years a very intense and interesting rhythmic backbone for the project. And this new LP here is definitely cause for a bit of reflection, as it marks ten years since the release of the breakout Machine Girl album Wolf Girl in 2014.

And since the release of that album, Machine Girl has become one of the most notable acts on the greater digital hardcore scene. The punk electronic fusion genre that has been seeing a bit of a renaissance as we've transitioned into the information age. And why wouldn't it? We're on our computers all the fucking time.

But yeah, Machine Girl has grown to be one of the most interesting and relevant modern artists in the style. The Machine Girl discography grows more and more consistent every passing year too, but at least in my eyes, I have seen it to be a kind of consistent to a fault. Because while previous Machine Girl albums certainly have a chaotic, impenetrable sound that is very left field, I've also found their stuff on some level to be a little overwhelming, to the point where I can't really work through it or process it, no matter how many times I listen to it. I don't really get a lot out of their tracks, as very little seems to translate through the chaos.

Records like U-Void Synthesizer, for example, I have found to have a lot of energy and momentum and layers, but simultaneously not a lot of focus or cohesion to the frenzied mixes all of these songs happen within.

However, going into this new record here, I was hoping that wouldn't so much be the case, especially considering that a few of the teasers, especially "Mother Father", felt like the duo were kind of streamlining the Machine Girl sound into something that was still abrasive, still in-your-face, still gutsy, but maybe a bit more palatable. They also worked a few interesting genre switches into this track as well, with an epic, grungy chorus, but alas, I still found at least some of the same shortcomings when digging deeper into the tracklist on this LP, even if some of the ruckus across these songs has been cleared up a bit – the vocals, for example, on the opening track "Until I Die", are so garbled and buried and muffled at points, especially on the chorus, when I feel like the song should be leaving its biggest impression on the listener.

And there's at least several other key moments on the record where it seems like this need for speed, volume, and chaos gets in the way of making something catchy or memorable. Songs like "Ass to Mars", as well as "Cicadas" I feel like are kind of close but no cigar to me. And in this same sense, I also didn't think "Half Asleep" added that much to the record's tracklist either, as this song sort of seems to be an overextended interlude that feels like some kind of terminally online ambient vaporwave bit.

However, despite these complaints, there are quite a few highlights on this record that frankly, I love. "Nu Nu Meta Phenomena" is quite an interesting and unique track in my opinion, loaded with squishy, glitched out and stuttering electronics. The gruesome lead vocals that stand out in the mix quite a bit more than they do on other tracks definitely make this one a standout, too. The whole song sounds like being high on cocaine while hacking into The Matrix and talking to hot moms on AOL Instant Messenger, all while doing this on dial up.

Another standout track on the record is most certainly "Sick", with its fuzzed out lead melodies and speedy dance beats, as well as punky lead vocals. This track is one that I cannot deny, especially since it brings an actually catchy hook to the table. I also appreciate all of the dystopian social commentary happening across the song too, and all of these allusions to sickness, sickness of the self of society, etc.

"Hot Lizard" was another track that most definitely stayed with me too, because its warped, twisted lead melodies and tiny voiced verses contrast really well from this gigantic, roaring industrial rock chorus that feels like something from the first Nine Inch Nails album, but executed very well in a way that translates into this modern, abrasive, glitch rock sound.

There's also "Mother Father" that I mentioned earlier, and then, believe it or not, we actually go into a pretty strong finish for the album, too. "Grindhouse" is packed with bumping, techhouse grooves and mutant lead vocals. It sounds like the most demented rave imaginable. It is a very timely character portrait of sorts that seems to paint somebody who is a very angry, very bitter lashing out at the world due to their powerlessness. This person is very paranoid and conspiracy brained and kind of fueled by hate as well. The song is clearly a reflection of the type of person who seems to be just about everywhere on the internet these days. I guess my one major worry is that the writing is so accurate, the sort of person the song is about might catch it and then, you know, think it's about them in a positive way.

And then the closing track on the record, I think, does a great job of finding balance between chaos and catchiness, too.

And overall, I thought this was a pretty solid album from Machine Girl. The production continues to be flavorful and detailed and just absolutely insane and relentless in terms of energy and intensity. Matthew and Sean have managed to maintain that, and a pretty original sound on this album, while approaching songwriting in a way to where it's just a bit more readable, intelligible, legible, doing a better job of presenting the vocals in a way to where they're not getting lost in the haze of everything else, picking and choosing melodies and bits of instrumentation to stand out from the rest of the very chaotic mix so that you actually kind of focus on something as the mayhem continues. And all of this was making the record appeal at least a bit more to me.

I could totally understand maybe some long time Machine Girl fans being a bit disappointed by this record, with it not being, I guess, in many respects, as or more extreme than previous releases, which could be good or bad, depending on what exactly it is you want out of the project.

But with that being said, as far as regular digital hardcore standards go, Machine Girl is still making some pretty abrasive and badass music, which is most certainly why you should check this album out if that is at all your bag, any kind of digi hardcore, any kind of industrial rap, any kind of industrial rock, that sort of thing. Which is why I'm feeling a decent 7 on this album.

Anthony Fantano. Machine Girl. Forever.