Machina II: The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music

Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music
Studio album by The Smashing Pumpkins
Released	September 5, 2000 (2000-09-05)
Recorded	1999–2000
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	94:23
Language	English
Label	Constantinople
Producer	Billy Corgan and Flood
Professional reviews
Allmusic link The A.V. Club link Pitchfork Media (7.7/10) link
The Smashing Pumpkins chronology
Machina/The Machines of God (2000) Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music (2000) Zeitgeist (2007)
EP covers
EP one (CR-01)
EP two (CR-02)
EP three (CR-03)

Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music is the sixth studio album by The Smashing Pumpkins. It was released for free on the Internet on September 5, 2000. A sequel to Machina/The Machines of God, it has thus far not had a commercial release. The album itself, a double LP, was packaged with three EPs full of B-sides and alternate versions.^[1] Both Machina albums are loose concept albums telling the story of "a rock star gone mad."^[1] Machina II was the last Smashing Pumpkins studio album until the band reformed in 2007.

History

Near the conclusion of the Machina sessions, it was Billy Corgan's wish to release a double album of material, but Virgin Records was unwilling to do that following the disappointing sales of Adore.^{[citation needed]} After the release and poor sales of the single-disc Machina/The Machines of God, Corgan then wanted to release a second Machina album separately, but Virgin declined to do this as well.^{[citation needed]} The band nonetheless returned to the Chicago Recording Company in July 2000 to finish what would become Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music, which was subsequently released on Corgan's own label Constantinople Records.^{[citation needed]} Only twenty-five copies were made, and were given mostly to friends of the band. A few of the 25 copies were purposely shipped to prominent fans in the online community, with instructions to immediately redistribute it on the Internet free of charge.^[1]

Promotion

The Pumpkins performed a track from the album ("Cash Car Star") on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, which also ended up being the band's final television appearance until their 2007 revival.^{[citation needed]} The performance was a rarity as "Cash Car Star" was not a single in any way, and Machina II was unavailable for purchase. (Leno even held up an actual vinyl hard copy of the album in true talk show performance tradition, with the comment "You can download it on the Internet") A previous live performance of the song had been broadcast as a portion of Kiss' 1998 Psycho Circus Halloween special, where The Smashing Pumpkins served as the opening act.^{[citation needed]}

The album

Billy Corgan's chart showing the loose story of Machina and Machina II

Machina II picks up the loose story of Glass and The Machines of God started in Machina/The Machines of God. Songs like "Glass' Theme", "Cash Car Star", "Home", and the B-side "Speed Kills" are indisputably related to Corgan's story (see corresponding flowchart to the left). The first three songs, considerably more intense than much of the Pumpkins' other releases,^[2] are a hearkening to the earlier, famous Smashing Pumpkins sound, blending dream pop with arena rock,^[3] while "Let Me Give the World to You" has a melodic, radio-friendly sound.^[3] "Real Love", which would later appear on the band's Rotten Apples, has a sound reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine.^[2] "Home" has been called "simply gorgeous"^[3] and compared to U2.^[2] The album's closing track, "Here's to the Atom Bomb", has been compared favorably to the Pumpkins' biggest hit, "1979".^[3]

Response

Because it was not released conventionally, few professional reviews of the album were published, but those that surfaced were largely positive. The A.V. Club called it an "artistic high" for the band.^[2] Pitchfork Media opined that the band sounded "energized and at a creative peak."^[3] Allmusic labeled it a "winner."^[4]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Billy Corgan, except where noted. 

The two-LP set is the album itself. Corgan has said that the three EPs are "technically the B-sides."^[5] CR-01, CR-02, etc. all refer to their released on Constantinople Records (Constantinople Records-Released 1, etc). The only other Constantinople release, CR-05, was Live at Cabaret Metro 10-5-88, a gift given to fans exiting their farewell concert at the Cabaret Metro. The song "Let Me Give the World to You", originally written and recorded for Adore, would have been considered for a single, had the album seen an official release.^{[citation needed]} The original, as-yet-unsurfaced version, was produced by Rick Rubin.^[6]

Release sources

This section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (January 2008)

A number of a release sources exist for Machina II. All of them are sourced from vinyl (except for the noted commercial releases of select tracks).

Virgin promos

This source is from in-house promo CDs made for internal use at Virgin Records (sourced from the vinyls), made before Machina II was released to the public over the Internet. Two versions of the promos exist, a UK (type I) and U.S. (type II) version, both with four CDs corresponding to the vinyl copies.^[7] As it was done in-house at a record company it generally assumed to be a high-quality transfer, though some of the faint voices which can be heard in the background before some of the EP songs are cut off, and in general it is missing a considerable amount of audio between song transitions.

Q101 transfer

As mentioned above, the radio station Q101 received one of the 25 vinyl copies. It was subsequently transferred to two CDs by the station (one CD containing the EP tracks and one containing the LP tracks). The transfer was done by a high profile radio station (presumably with high-end equipment and professional oversight) and spectral analysis shows the transfer to be of good quality. Copies were given away as prizes from the station.

SPIFC transfer

The SPIFC transfer was produced from a vinyl copy by a member of the SPIFC. A transfer was eventually performed onto two CDs with "high-end" equipment. The SPIFC offers MP3 downloads of the transfer to members and held a contest giving away CD-R copies. The SPIFC transfer shows a 21 kHz tone which casts some doubt on the quality of the transfer.

MP3 web releases

Following the vinyl release a number of MP3 versions quickly surfaced on the web. A select number of people involved in the Smashing Pumpkins online fan community received one of the 25 releases. Using audio equipment they had immediate access to these were recorded onto computer, encoded to MP3 and quickly released for the masses. Later MP3 releases may be from one of the CD sources listed above or newer lesser known transfers. The Smashing Pumpkins' official site also had the full 25 tracks for download in both mp3 format (at 320kbit/s) and in Real Audio format.^[8] In 2007, the album was once again posted for download on the newly-reopened SmashingPumpkins.com.

Commercial releases

Four tracks from Machina II have been released commercially. These are of specific note, because these versions were sourced from the master tapes rather than amateur vinyl transfers. "Real Love" was featured on Rotten Apples. "Lucky 13" and "Slow Dawn" appeared on Judas Ø, which was included with early copies of Rotten Apples. The Machina II version of "Try, Try, Try" was one of the B-sides to the "Untitled" single, titled "Try (Alternate Version)." The studio banter that precedes "Try, Try, Try" on Machina II has been removed from this version.

External links

• spfc.org: Discography: Machina II/The friends & Enemies of Modern Music
• spfc.org: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for Machina II/the Friends & Enemies of Modern Music
• Shattering Fast Alchemical Glass: Art & The Occult of The Smashing Pumpkins' Machina Mystery

Download sites

• Archive.org (Virgin transfer; FLAC, OGG and VBR MP3)
• Archive.org (Eric Agnew transfer; FLAC, OGG and VBR MP3)¹
• Archive.org (Q101 transfer; FLAC, OGG and VBR MP3)
• Archive.org (Remastered Q101 transfer; FLAC, OGG and VBR MP3)
• Archive.org (SPIFC transfer; FLAC, OGG and VBR MP3)

1 The turntable Eric Agnew used to transfer was 3% faster than normal, so the speed and pitch of the music on this version is increased compared to the others.^[9]

References