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<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nIt\u2019s official: The Airborne Toxic Event is no longer a \u201cproper rock band.\u201d The California quintet\u2019s new album, Dope Machines<\/i>, pairs loud guitars with glitzy synths and canned beats with live drums, and although leader Mikel Jollett struggles to define the sound, he knows it\u2019s not what people were expecting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a set of rules you\u2019re supposed to follow as a rock band,\u201d says Jollet. \u201cYou\u2019re supposed to work with a big producer, have your radio single, and the song you wrote that sounds like this reference and that reference. It all felt like such a farce.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rather than acquiesce to such prescribed rules, Jollett opted to self-produce Dope Machines<\/i>, ATE\u2019s fourth full-length and first for new label Epic. In sound and spirit, the album derives from \u201cHell and Back,\u201d an Americana synth-pop dance jam Jollett wrote for the soundtrack to the 2013 film Dallas Buyers Club<\/i>. \u201cIt was a fusion between acoustic guitar and foot-stomping\u2014what you\u2019re hearing is literally me and [multi-instrumentalist] Anna [Bulbrook] stamping our feet on the ground\u2014mixed with this crazy drum-and-bass loop and all these keyboards doing octaves and stuff,\u201d Jollett says.<\/p>\n
\u201cHell and Back\u201d resurfaces on Dope Machines<\/i>, and it embodies the disc\u2019s hybrid sound. \u201cThere are parts of the record that sound like traditional rock,\u201d Jollett says. \u201cThere are parts that probably sound like traditional dance music. Most of the record I don\u2019t think sounds like either of those things. It\u2019s in its own little world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jollett was in a little world of his own when he wrote the tracks, and working solo, he\u2019d often put in 12-hour days. He says his bandmates supported his experiments with new tones and textures, even though ATE\u2019s last album, 2013\u2019s Such Hot Blood<\/i>, was a more collaborative effort born out of jamming.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of that was great, but the core of Airborne, to me, has always been these 2 a.m. songs,\u201d says Jollett, referencing tunes like \u201cMy Childish Bride,\u201d a dreamy Dope Machines <\/i>synth ballad that\u2019s among the biggest departures for this crew of proven arena rockers. \u201cThose don\u2019t always come from jam sessions. You\u2019ve got to wrestle with an idea, and if you write about it, there\u2019s something very personal. If you\u2019re just jamming, an idea might sound good to a group that doesn\u2019t really capture the essence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Little about Dope Machines<\/i> sounds accidental or off-the-cuff. \u201cSo much time was spent listening to reverb and trying to figure out beats,\u201d he says. \u201cEvery second of this record was poured over. I guess that makes me not Mick Jagger.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013Kenneth Partridge<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT The critical favorites rewrite the rock rulebook on a Dope new album It\u2019s official: The Airborne Toxic Event is no longer a \u201cproper rock band.\u201d The California quintet\u2019s new album, Dope Machines, pairs loud guitars with glitzy synths and canned beats with live drums, and although leader Mikel Jollett struggles to define […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[7675,7623],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14755"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14755"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14757,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14755\/revisions\/14757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}