A first release on vinyl for a new artist - Man & Machine - combines electronics and downtempo sounds in a partly instrumental set that will appeal to Fruits de Mer Records fans of Us and Them, La Nouvelle Musique and Pinhdar – and hopefully to a much wider audience who are in the mood to listen to a new artist.

Pressed on colour vinyl, get this limited-run 10” before everyone else latches on.

Tom Roche (aka Man & Machine) explains all…

"Man & Machine is a solo project of mine which started about 15 or so years ago...before that I was in various bands, having great fun and getting a few good support slots before calling it a day......(In my mate’s band we supported the Screaming Trees & Catatonia to name but two...an allegedly pretty stoned Cerys Mathews once asked my mate Andy and I to a party..."sorry, I'm driving and have work in the morning " I demurred. We still laugh about it.....!)

Fortunately at that time a new library in the area opened up with a recording studio.....wow, a chance to record and it was free1 So it was then I started recording solo work and steadily built up a collection of original material.....sadly over time the library closed but the studio remained and got bigger and better though more expensive...ie, you had to pay. Beetroot Studios in my hometown of Airdrie is a fantastic facility used by many great Scottish bands.

Through the years Man & Machine, with the help of producer Stuart MacLeod ,have utilised the studio to great effect. The songs have been recorded over a number of years, always in the hope of being released and always with the joy of just creating music ....the two instrumentals on the forthcoming EP owe a lot to the great work and ideas from Stuart...also a brilliant guitar player.

There's still a few tracks in the M & M vault and hopefully a few more can be recorded....excuse me, while I buy a lottery ticket ! . PTO

Man & Machine's influences are pretty standard, Beatles, Kinks, Pink Floyd, Bee Gees, Bowie.....the usual masters of classic sixties and seventies rock....I was never a big prog man growing up, more into Mud and Sweet, but with FdM's help I now do enjoy the more esoteric (good name for a band) sounds of a moody prog rock 12 minute instrumental !

A Facebook friend of mine turned me on to Fruits de Mer a good few years ago......he'd posted the Pretty Things version of a White Album song...and pretty good it was too. This started my interest in FdM and I started collecting the label’s releases.
I eventually decided to submit a few tracks, and to my delight were accepted and had a couple of tracks feature on free members club CD's...after sending in more tracks Keith offered me the chance of releasing a 10" EP ,so to have a vinyl release coming out is totally surreal...hopefully it'll be enjoyed by fellow FdM lovers!

Track listing

1. Earthman (4:11)
2. Sleepyhead (3:49)
3. Otherworldly (5:16)
4. Lost At Sea (5:27)
5. Safespace (1:59)
6. Earthman (Lost In Space (4:50)