September 19, 2026

I Speak Machine – War (Album – ISM Records)

I Speak Machine – "War" album cover
🇺🇦 Side-Line stands with Ukraine - Show your Support

Genre/Influences: Electro-Wave, Electro-Pop, Experimental.

Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.

Background/Info: I Speak Machine is an American project featuring Tara Busch and filmmaker Maf Lewis. “War” is the band’s third full length album. It’s a self-released production they got the opportunity to present as the support act of the Gary Numan tour in Europe.

Content: I Speak Machine brings good-old 80s Electro-Wave elements back to life. They next boosted and reinforced this element with harsher, Industrial, sound treatments while Tara Busch sings in a deeply, sensual, but charismatic way. This album reminds me of an imaginary hybrid between Goldfrapp and Chicks On Speed.

+ + + : I like the rough, industrialized, Pop style of this band. There also is a perverted, but cool fusion between the hot vocals and heavy sound treatments. It sounds a bit minimal and experimental, but also danceable. The album reveals different cool songs, but I have a preference for the ‘harder’ cuts like “Ruined Me”, “The Metal Of My Hell”, “Left For Dead” and “War”.

– – – : The Softer Cuts Aren’t Exactly The Album’s Best- Nor Hottest Exposure.

Conclusion: I honestly never heard of this band before, but this album is a true revelation revealing a band with a personal Wave-Pop approach.

Best songs: “Ruined Me”, “The Metal Of My Hell”, “Left For Dead”, “War”, “Push The Grease”.

Rate: 8.

Artist: www.ispeakmachine.com / www.facebook.com/ispeakmachine

About I Speak Machine

I Speak Machine is an American duo formed by vocalist and synthesizer player Tara Busch and filmmaker Maf Lewis, based in Los Angeles, California. The pair build scores and short films together and give the audio and the visual equal weight.

Their first release was the score and short film “The Silence”, issued by Lex Records on 19 January 2015. “Zombies 1985” followed on Lex Records in 2017 and the self-released “War” in 2022. Earlier the duo shared the EP “Exponentialism” with Gazelle Twin on Metamatic in 2013.

Busch also sang on “Under My Skin”, the 2017 download single by John Fryer under his Black Needle Noise name. The duo presented “War” on the road as support act on Gary Numan’s European tour.

Support Side-Line

More people read Side-Line than ever, and there is still no paywall and no advertising. Readers pay for it instead - from $5 a month.

Select a Donation Option (USD)

Enter Donation Amount (USD)
Why we ask

Advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations we have not put up a paywall, and we refuse to add annoying advertising, so we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes time, money and hard work to produce, and we do it to push the artists we like, who are equally fighting to survive.

Handled by PayPal.