Critics have a pretty tough job. Sure from the outside it seems like it’s all review copies and event invites but editorially tough decisions have to be made. You see, I have this theory that most journalists eventually become tired of their medium. Handing out average scores to releases that are half decent and greatly rewarding anything that’s remotely unique or different in anyway.

I bring up this theory to make a tenuous link between it and Junk Science’s third album, A Miraculous Kind of Machine. Admittedly Junk Science are, at their core, still hip-hop. However, only as in they sound like someone rhythmically talking over produced music. With that said they definitely aren’t cut from the same cloth as most. Weird slow-downed samples play over airy synthesised noises between tracks and the tracks themselves are anything but mainstream. You’ll be taken back and anyone new to the duo of Baje One and Snafu will more than likely wonder what all the buzz is about.

If you can’t relate to what I say, or don’t like the way I say it / Then it’s probably safe to say that you don’t like me as a rapper

Then once you start to dissect A Miraculous Kind of Machine, you start to appreciate how different it is – like a critic would. They don’t try to hide it, the album’s stand-out track “Fire Drill” makes no apologies in terms of lyrics or production. It only dips further into the left-field throughout the album, tracks like “Sailing” and “First Snow” experiment with every aspect of the art-form. Then again, for every “Sailing” there are two “Really, Man” or “Running Shoes” – more accessible tracks that look into subjects like financial security and growing older.

It’s an eclectic mix of tracks, that’s for sure, but once you’ve gotten over the initial hurdle you’ll find insightful and humorous lyrics over exceptionally unique production. However, with that said the term acquired taste will never apply to an artist more aptly. A Miraculous Kind of Machine deserves a listen but it isn’t for everyone and is probably the least accessible of their three albums to date. Anyone new would probably be better off starting with Grandad’s Nerve Tonic before moving onto this, anyone else will not be disappointed. Personally though, I’m probably not enough of a critic to completely love it but I’m not too far away.

4/5

Junk Science’s A Miraculous Kind of Machine can be bought on the iTunes store or through Modern Shark for the excellent looking physical copy.