SHOCKONE
Drops New Album
‘A DARK MACHINE’
.
.
.
Someone wakes in the night to find themselves running down a darkened street. They don’t know where they are, or what they’re running from, but they know they have to keep going.
This is the electrifying opening moment Perth electronic producer ShockOne (AKA Karl Thomas) has crafted for his highly anticipated second album A Dark Machine. Stream and download the album HERE.
Over thirteen propulsive and atmospheric tracks, with features from the likes of his sister and vocalist Reija Lee, Cecil, Cruz Patterson and producers Ekko and Sidetrack, ShockOne builds a woozy dystopia and unfurls a story about confronting the darkest parts of ourselves. It’s not just a concept album but a whole world for the listener to step inside of. A Dark Machine tips its hat to ‘80s sci-fi films like Blade Runner and Beyond the Black Rainbow, drawing inspiration from the soundtracks of producers like Giorgio Moroder, Vangelis and the scores to old school slasher flicks from John Carpenter.
The message, Thomas says, is that our subconscious – our own dark machines – just want to be acknowledged. “Understanding that is the realisation I came to in writing the album. The whole notion of a dark machine is the personification of our own subconscious. The album is about navigating that internal neurotic conversation that everyone’s having with themselves and how, sometimes, it can be quite a dark place to be in and navigate,”.
To build a cinematic soundscape in his music, Thomas immersed himself in those neo-noirs. To create sonics that would evoke a brain-bending time and place he used hardware synthesisers like the Moog 37 and Roland Promars, as well as recreating the cinematic voiceovers of yesteryear and sampling them in song.
Fittingly, the album began with the lead and title single A Dark Machine. After making that track, a vision for the album began to crystallise and Thomas realised the world he was building was bigger than just one song. Two years and two more singles (2018’s Bleed Black and Underloved) later, the full story is ready to be told.
Across A Dark Machine ShockOne takes us through the sound of impending doom, gripping panic, frenetic end-of-the-world raves and, on the industrial Klaxon, literally entering into the bowls of the titular machine. The album opener Awake, sees our protagonist sucked violently out of a dream, while Run (feat. The Bloody Beetroots) charts our fictional protagonist’s terrified awakening. On Black Blood he dabbles with self destruction, on A Dark Machine he converses with himself and on Lost It he wonders if he’s gone out of his mind. Eventually, by the album’s end, he reaches a place of acceptance and realises there’s certain things you can’t outrun.
A Dark Machine is the follow-up to 2013’s debut album Universus, which spawned the hitsLight Cycles,Homeand Chaos Theory. ShockOne’s decade-long career also includes the drum and bass classic Polygon and 2016’s In This Light EP. With A Dark Machine, Karl Thomas has created his best, most realised music yet.
.
A DARK MACHINE TOUR DATES
FRIDAY 9th AUGUST | HOME THE VENUE, SYDNEY, NSW
SATURDAY 10th AUGUST | WAVES, WOLLONGONG, NSW
TUESDAY 13th AUGUST | THE TRIFFID, BRISBANE, QLD
FRIDAY 16th AUGUST | LION ARTS FACTORY, ADELAIDE, SA
SATURDAY 17th AUGUST | CENTENARY WAREHOUSE, PERTH, WA
FRIDAY 23rd AUGUST | OTHERWISE, TOWNSVILLE, QLD
SATURDAY 24th AUGUST | THE ATTIC, CAIRNS, QLD
FRIDAY 30th AUGUST | CAMBRIDGE HOTEL, NEWCASTLE, NSW
SATURDAY 31st AUGUST | SNOWTUNES FESTIVAL, JINDABYNE, NSW
.
.
TRACKLISTING
Awake
Run
Til Dawn
A Dark Machine
Bleed Black
Lost It
Oberheim
Klaxon
Underloved
The Nights always Waiting
Pray for Me
Silver and Gold
Willows Theme
.
Follow SHOCKONE
OFFICIAL WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | YOUTUBE | SOUNDCLOUD | INSTAGRAM
.
.
