Down The Machine - Know Your Place

Hear The Track Here

One of the benefits of being a regular reviewer is that your name gets around and that is when you get the interesting contacts. Such a one is Pete Baldwin of Ambicon Records who introduced me to Harlot, a great little UK rock band. Now here he is with yet another slice of Northern rock life, this time courtesy of Down The Machine, a 4 piece alternative rock band from Leeds. Steve Wilson, Dan Millikin, Neil Short and Mark Greenwood are the card carrying members of the band and have already released a whole bunch of tracks which you can find on their website or the affiliated Bandcamp site. The reason I mention this is because (as you know too well) I am partial to good rock bands and sorry, no one does it quite like the English... OK, I'll get my coat now....lol As an example of what I mean, have a listen to Let You In on their site, ******* awesome...

Know Your Place is the track I was sent though and - as you will see - there is also a video to go with the experience and a damn fine video it is too. I must admit to liking this principally through the MP3 (and staring at the wall obviously) so the video came as a welcome revelation because it shows that the band have thought about the image they want to show as well as the quality of the music they produce. The band perform cut with shots of the riots and demonstrations that plagued London and other parts of the country this past summer, and the combination of the band's power and those images shows you in uncertain terms exactly which place Down The Machine have settled on.

While I have nothing but admiration for the devotion to image and professional attitude of bands like Down The Machine it don't mean shit if the music doesn't actually....well....rock. Know Your Place is both a great song and an enormously enjoyable wallow in the healing waters of great rock music. Put it like this, if there were any justice in this sick, sick world, Down The Machine would already be rock stars because they certainly have all the musical ducks in a row. The thing that always does it for me (in rock as elsewhere) is a simple chorus that can be bellowed by just about anybody and Know Your Place sports a classic; it's worth a listen for the chorus alone, know what I mean?

MUST HAVE riot rock.