Machine Girl Delivers Us From The Digital Realm In Their New Psychowarrior: MG Ultra X
Design by Diego Gonzalez
By Salem Ross
The internet of the past is long forgotten.
What was once a suggestive space made of people that had the power to rip themselves off the screen and form in the real world has now turned into a showcase of pixelated slop. Is it too late to change this rotten and artificial landscape? Do not fret! A solution can be found in Machine Girl’s newest project, PsychoWarrior: MG Ultra X, but not without a fight.
PsychoWarrior: MG Ultra X serves as a sequel to the band’s previous album, MG Ultra, which explored similar themes relating to the decline of online culture. Most prominently exhibited on this album is the distaste of AI reliance in our everyday lives. Resuming these messages with the opening track We Don’t Give A Fuck. Acting as a tranquil loading screen, Lead Vocalist Matt Stephenson briefs on what it is like to log on in the modern world:
“But I got my content up now
But I got my drugs re-upped now
I don’t have time to give a fuck.”
Understanding the content overload of today is evaluated through examples of how easy it is to lose time within these cycles. Even as many people criticize said “brainrot” time, they indulge in this distraction from the outside world and the events presented in it. At the same time, they understand the negative consequences of generating silly prompts for entertainment. Acceptance feels inevitable with the influx of AI-generated slop taking form in previously regular spaces, such as subway cars and restaurant menus. It’s also harder to resist the stuff when ad revenue for AI based content creators reach up to $130,00 a year. In an interview with NPR, Mark Lawrence I Garilao, an AI based instagram creator said: “The highest I made was in the month of May. I made $9,000 in just one month”
It seems as if the pile of worrying about the future grows by the second, and biting the hand that feeds is a wavering question to many. The song ends imploding on itself, saying that the public is to blame for the meta-explosion that has splattered across the living. Continuing the increased worry of expenses, Track 11, Despite Having No Money At All, Im Just Another Rat In The Mall, broadcasts the panic of partaking in mass consumerism. “When everything’s a store/ What can you afford?/Take a look around/Who’s this built for?” Questions the ways we partake in consumer culture since becoming unavoidable. Grocery subscriptions, security cameras, Amazon as an accessible and affordable option for many to receive their necessities. The list goes on. Feeling boxed into a cycle of sell, buy, repost, like, etc extends beyond online, often bleeding out into the physical.
Modern technology (more than ever before) is a diversion to the now. As displayed in Tracks like “Rabbit Season” and “Ignore the Vore” the narrator dives headfirst into these distractions. “You haven’t been the same/ Since you found that thing/ That thing found you I think/There’s been a lot of rumors/I have to know the truth/ What the fuck’s been eating you?”(Ignore the Void) This line acts as an observation of how the difference between online presence and reality has blended to the point of no separation to many. On the other hand, it recognizes losing people to certain dark corners of the internet. Places disguised as salvation and welcoming, whilst breeding more hate towards problems that have had enough. Stephonson’s questioning is increased with lead guitarist Lucy Caputi’s backing vocals, making it the power trip of the album.
PsychoWarrior: MG Ultra comes with an electric chainsaw-like sound: Sharp and loud. Come On Baby, Scrape My Data was the first single released back in August, setting the tone for what was to come in the future. Opening with a sultry voice displaying the title, welcoming anyone to open their search history and allow their information to be used against them. The group as a whole has been more lyrical on these last projects in comparison to their past discography. Usually met with backlash from fans stuck in the past, wanting a more early MG-esc sound. The group has grown into itself on this latest release, evident on heavier tracks such as “Creeping up from the pit”. Opening up the song with a jarring loop of the title, one can only imagine the energy it will bring live. The first (and only) verse of the song appears 1:24 into its two minutes. Quoting the 1983 psychosexual horror Videodrome, a very Machine Girl adjacent film about hidden mind control in masochistic VHS tapes, Stephenson calls out to “Flay Yourself/ For the new flesh”. Calling back to the options of resisting or giving into the blind comfort offered by ignorance.
Machine Girl has always been a root of noise. Conveying issues through electronic vortexes and offering a space to exercise these frustrations. PsychoWarrior: MG Ultra X offers salvation in the form of mind control. Breaching your ear canal with encrypted messages of deliverance. The albums aesthetics are noise in of themselves. Wires and latex, video game horror meshed with oozing pixels of distortion. Within this album is the solution to counteracting online mess–giving the listener a hardcore break from the recorded data usually served and displaying a sliver of hope for the new age of tomorrow.