Family band Essential Machine connect with new album, Compressor//Sustainer.

By Graeme Smith

Feature photo by Katie Pascarella

Essential Machine have put a lot into their new album. They scrapped a whole record’s worth of material and started again in order to create it. It was important to them that the whole album felt coherent, forming a longer piece from the opening of its first track to the end of its closer.

Everything about the album feels deliberate. The introduction to opener Along The Wall is slow-burning, gradually welcoming us into its world before the soulful vocals come in. They are paired with an instrumental that has an understated lushness, particularly during a chorus that’s full of longing.

The band describe the album as expressing their innermost feelings and fear and there’s a sense of intimacy throughout. There are themes of loss, existential dread, and trying to make connections in a world that’s burning, so it’s not exactly a happy record, but one that feels all the more relatable as a result.

That’s not say it isn’t without its high points. Walking Pi (In A Daze) feels life-affirming. Dirtbag has a soaring, Radiohead-esque quality. Pinky is jaunty. The World is Watching has a cinematic groove. The storytelling, post-rock In Search of Future Humans lands perfectly at the end of the album. Bonus track Now or Never proves a lyrically poignant final meditation.

That rarest of things nowadays, Essential Machine are a family band made up of a father, mother and son, Pittsburgh, USA-based Robert, Karen, and RJ Dietrich. They self-recorded and produced Compressor//Sustainer.

The album is set for release 15 August 2025 and is available to pre-order now on 12″ vinyl.