The Routes instrumental/psych/western surf sound of the California of the Fifties-first half of the Sixties: two sonic and conceptual worlds apparently irreconcilable with each other, in the minds of many musicians, but not for the Routes. Yes, because the prolific Japanese garage/psych band, led by the tireless talent of the British guitarist/frontman Chris Jack, after giving birth in 2021 to three albums, “Mesmerised” and the instrumentals “Instrumentals II” and “Shave Five”, in this first half of 2022 enjoys having his band record a selection of ten instrumental covers of classics by Kraftwerk, a seminal German electronic band collected in a new album, entitled titled “The Twang· Machine”, which also in the title is inspired by one of the most famous and iconic albums of the Dusseldorf quartet, “The Man-Machine”, clearly honored also in the cover of the album, which sees the Routes posing to emulate the four Teutonic “machine-men”, who originally released the LP in 1978.
Released on Topsy-Turvy Records (Soundflat) in collaboration with Double Crown Records and Otitis Media Records, “The Twang · Machine” sees the Japanese-Scottish trio try their hand at reviving the various workhorses of Kraftwerk, donating to “The Model”, “Neon Lights” (here in a magnificent and languid rumba version) “The Robots”, “Computer Love”, “Trans-Europe Express”, “Radioactivity” and the other pieces a new life through an intelligent rethinking, rearranging and distorting the original songs, assembling a kaleidoscopic journey through space and time, characterized by a mood of sunny Californian beaches and the ocean now quiet, now stormy to face (in style “A Wednesday as a lion”) the dream of an “endless summer” of Beach Boysiana memory, surf rock,
The Fat Angel Sings 