Róisín Machine
Since her days fronting Moloko beginning in the mid-’90s, Róisín Murphy has been dancing around the edges of the club, and occasionally—for instance, on the 2012 single “Simulation” or 2015’s “Jealousy”—she has waded into the thick of the dance floor. But on *Róisín Machine*, the Irish singer-songwriter declares her unconditional love for the discotheque. Working with her longtime collaborator DJ Parrot—a Sheffield producer who once recorded primitive house music alongside Cabaret Voltaire’s Richard H. Kirk in the duo Sweet Exorcist—she summons a sound that is both classic and expansive, swirling together diverse styles and eras into an enveloping embrace of a groove. “We Got Together” invokes 1988’s Second Summer of Love in its bluesy, raving-in-a-muddy-field stomp; “Shellfish Mademoiselle” sneaks a squirrelly acid bassline under cover of Hammond-kissed R&B; “Kingdom of Ends” is part Pink Floyd, part “French Kiss.” The crisply stepping funk of “Incapable”—a dead ringer for classic Matthew Herbert, another of her onetime collaborators—is as timeless as house music gets. So are the pumping “Simulation” and “Jealousy,” which bookend the album, and which haven’t aged a day since they first burned up nightclubs as white-label 12-inches.
On her fifth solo album, the Irish singer finds a new role as a dancefloor truth-teller, infusing house and disco epics with thrilling expressions of desire, regret, and self-knowledge.
The Irish icon’s dancefloor-ready record is her most euphoric yet, full of hedonistic singalong hits to make you really miss the club
Róisín Murphy has been dropping eccentric dance music for over two decades, both as part of the duo Moloko and as a solo artist.
If it makes you move, it’s a winner. If it makes you think too, to Róisín, that’s even better.
In the years between 2007's Overpowered and 2015's Hairless Toys, Róisín Murphy issued a string of singles that were as excellent as her albums.
There are few artists who are genuinely cool — self-possessed and unserious, powerful and vulnerable, the kind of person you want to impress...
Former Moloko singer Róisín Murphy is on superb form on her new record, embracing house and disco in a way that sounds as natural as it is elegant
Pop outsider and lockdown living-room star Murphy distils her disco expertise and musical idiosyncrasies in songs pulsing with dancefloor power<strong><br></strong>
The Wicklow native’s fifth solo album is an especially relevant album for these times
Murphy and long time Sheffield comrade deliver the disco goods. New music review by Joe Muggs