Machine Therapy

Alan Fitzpatrick’s Machine Therapy represents multiple milestones for the UK techno mainstay. It’s his first LP in more than a decade, and his first for Anjunadeep. In fact, Fitzpatrick tells Apple Music, “Machine Therapy feels like my first proper album,” period. Where 2010’s Shadows in the Dark collected the kinds of club tracks he was DJing back then, "This one really feels like a complete, fully rounded album,” wrapping up a wide range of electronic styles into a single, cohesive experience. The album’s ideas began to take shape in 2019, just prior to COVID lockdown. But that time away from clubbing, ironically, gave Fitzgerald the freedom to pursue the sorts of songs that he wouldn’t normally play in his DJ sets, like the drum ’n’ bass of “Bourgeois Imagery” or the ambient of “Berlin Morning Calm.” And with musicians around the world looking for ways to fill their days, collaboration became unexpectedly seamless. “The pandemic allowed me to work with people that I wouldn’t normally have worked with,” he says. “A lot of the time, you’re ships passing in the night.” Fitzgerald and drum ’n’ bass icon High Contrast finally got around to whipping up a song that finds common ground between their styles. Kele Okereke from Bloc Party, one of Fitzpatrick’s idols, turned up in his DMs. And the search for new sounds beyond his house and techno wheelhouse led him to rising talents like Lawrence Hart, Lowes, and Another Sky’s Catrin Vincent, all of whom inspired Fitzpatrick to explore unexpectedly songful territory, closing the gap between his habitual sound and Anjunadeep’s soulful, melodic signature. Here, he walks Apple Music through each of the album’s songs.
“Berlin Morning Calm” “This reminds me of walking through Berlin in the cold morning after leaving a gig. It’s that feeling of stillness after coming out of a crazy nightclub when your ears are ringing, and your eyes are flashing from the lights. You’ve been in there for what feels like an eternity, and you’re coming back to the real world, feeling a mix of emotions—euphoria and happiness but also calm. It’s just a reset.”
“Something Wonderful” “This was a tip to the old rave days. When I was a kid, I’d go down to Bournemouth, to the opera house—that was one of my first clubbing experiences. I was around 15. They used to have a second room in the club that was more breakbeat and drum ’n’ bass, rave-y stuff. I’d always end up wandering into that room, just to hear something different. We used to get a coach back from the nightclub, and on the radio, around 4 or 5 am, you’d have the Fabio & Grooverider show. This track reminds me of those times—just staring out the coach windows, listening to drum ’n’ bass, reminiscing about the night you’ve just had.”
“Warning Signs” (feat. Lawrence Hart) “This is one of my favorites that I’ve ever written—it still gives me goose bumps. Lawrence’s vocal is amazing. I heard one of his tracks with George FitzGerald, “Call It Love (If You Want To),” and immediately wanted to work with Lawrence. He wrote a story about two people who can’t be together but also can’t be apart. Making this track really drove home for me that this album was going to be something special.”
“W.A.I.S.T.D.” (feat. Kele) “The title is an abbreviation of the lyric, ‘What am I supposed to do?’ I’ve been a Bloc Party fan for years. It was a dream to work with Kele. I’d been badgering him via DM, asking if he’d be interested in doing something together. Then randomly, in the pandemic, he came back to me and was like, ‘I’m a big fan of the music—let’s do something.’ Which was pretty incredible. The track had a festival vibe and a big, banger-type hook like I did on ‘We Do What We Want.’ But I thought it needed a topline. So, I sent it to Kele, and he ran with it.”
“Bourgeois Imagery” (feat. High Contrast) “I’ve known Lincoln Barrett, High Contrast, for many years. We’re from different worlds—he’s drum ’n’ bass and I’m more techno and house—but we’d always end up in the same shuttles at festivals, or we’d bump into each other at the hotel reception. It was in London when we last saw each other, and I was like, ‘Right, let’s finally get some ideas over to each other.’ The pandemic hit, and we were like, ‘Well, let’s do it.’ It was a completely remote session, bouncing stems back and forth. We haven’t ever actually been in the studio together at all.”
“A Call Out for Love” (feat. Lowes) “I had the core of the track, but I really wanted a vocal on it. Then I heard Lowes on the radio—they did that track with CamelPhat, “Easier”—and I thought they could work really well. Evie, the lead singer, sent me a big folder of ideas back, and ‘A Call Out for Love’ just seemed to fit perfectly. It’s one of those moments where I’d been working on something for so long, hearing so many different vocals on it, and I dropped Lowes’ in, pressed play, and was like, ‘Finally.’”
“The Sweeper” “This is probably the closest track on the album to my DJ sets: high energy, techno beats, rave vibes. Very heady, clubby stuff. I put this track on the album three quarters of the way into the process, actually, because I had a moment where I was like, ‘I know clubs aren’t open and I’m trying to explore my musical abilities and push boundaries, but this album should also represent something from my bread-and-butter sound.’ It kicks quite hard, coming out of the other ones. But I think the record needs that in the middle—sort of a shake-up.”
“Acid Changes Everything” “I was spending quite a bit of time cooking in the kitchen or painting with the kids—domestic lockdown activities. That’s all you could do, just to take your mind off stuff. I had a weekend of listening to Bicep and Aphex Twin, just having that on in the background while I was making bread, and I wanted to get back in the studio and do something a bit nostalgic with the vocal pads and 303—that sort of ’90s, Bicep-y, Moby, 808 State sound.”
“Cosmic Waves” “For this track, I need to shout out my Roland SH-101—a nice, bright red, limited-edition one. I’ve got a lot of synths in the studio that I’ve built up over the years, and everything is MIDI’d together, so you just turn it on, fire it into your DAW, and start making music. But the SH-101 isn’t MIDI, so I don’t use it a lot. But I had recently watched Mathew Jonson talking about his favorite synths, and the way he was playing the SH-101 was really how you’d imagine a guitarist or drummer playing their instrument, so I fired it up and spent some time with it. ‘Cosmic Rays’ is sort of a tip to the Mathew Jonsons of the world—my interpretation of performing with the SH-101, just mucking around with the arpeggiators and the decay and creating a journey through the whole track.”
“Came Home” (feat. Catrin Vincent) “I very rarely listen to upbeat dance music unless I’m going through promos or getting ready to play a show. My personal time is spent listening to different stuff. Radiohead is one of those key groups I’m always listening to. I had made the basis of this track, the bones and the beats, and it sounded like Thom Yorke, his Atoms for Peace stuff or solo records—those mad, sporadic drum patterns. I knew that Catrin was a big fan of Thom Yorke and Radiohead, and her voice is incredible. She’s got a very distinct sound. I sent it over, and she absolutely smashed it. With some of these collaborations throughout the lockdown period, I was quite lucky to work with some of these people. I just don’t think it would have happened in normal circumstances.”
“Closing In” (feat. Lawrence Hart) “We had so much fun working together on ‘Warning Signs,’ I wanted to do something else with Lawrence. Getting two vocal tracks from Lawrence on the album, it sort of brings it all together. Once you hear ‘Warning Signs,’ if you’re into it, it’s a nice surprise to have him come back again towards the end. Both tracks were mastered at Abbey Road, which is incredible, too—that’s a little cherry on top.”
“Unite” “I originally wanted to have this track performed by a full orchestra, but the logistics of getting 60-odd people in a room together in the middle of the pandemic was impossible. So, I basically shelved the track, but then I came across the Charlie Chaplin vocal, and it stopped me in my tracks. The meaning of the vocal, it just hit home for the times we’re in. It seemed like the perfect way to bring the album to a close.”