MAQUINA. Cuts the Jam on ‘BODY TRANSMISSION’

Lisbon trio MAQUINA. has built a reputation on a visceral blend of krautrock, industrial, and dance, a sound that clashes with the city’s postcard-ready facade. With BODY TRANSMISSION, the group steps back from the sprawling jams that defined their 2023 debut. In their place is a clenched, economical record that stresses contrast and direct impact over drift.

Formed by Halison Peres, José “Mendy” Rego, and João Cavalheiro, MAQUINA. became a fixture on the European festival circuit through sheer kinetic force. Here, techno’s euphoric lift comes not from studio polish but from a mix pushed to the edge of clipping. The production is saturated, tactile, full of clattering echoes and quivering distortion — like a thermal camera rendered as sound. “Bizarro” uncoils with disorienting low-end before a chugging kick straightens the path; “Simulation” lets growling timbres devolve into searing dissonance. “Out of Fear” bookends a meditative center with snarling, forceful verses, using sheer muscle to expand its dynamic range.

Peres once described growing up in a small town in western Paraná, Brazil, as the sole person deeply invested in music: a black sheep at home and in his surroundings. That sense of alienated purpose runs through the record, most urgently on the slithering, metallic “Agony.” BODY TRANSMISSION doesn’t just perform intensity — it transmits it, like a current finding ground.