City of Satellites is an Australian duo from two cities hundreds of miles apart - Jarrod Manuel (vocals, guitar, synths) is based in Adelaide, while Thomas Diakomichalis (drums, synths, production) is based in Sydney. Jarrod and Thomas began writing music inspired by the shoegazer, stoner and grunge heroes of their high school days, but over time they have come to embrace and more deeply explore the sonic palette of the electronic era that helped shape their earlier formative years.
In City of Satellites' music, raw guitar tones, rich vocal melodies and dynamic percussive rhythms dance and weave around layers of vintage synthesizers, textures and sequences, creating ethereal yet structured electronic pop. The band flesh out the elegant skeleton of post-rock with the warm, melodic muscle of shoegaze rock.
"...On Machine Is My Animal, City of Satellites deliver on the exceptional promise of their debut EP The Spook – and then some. This pristine album synthesizes ’80s pop aesthetics with ’00s production values to create a truly monumental sound. From the Eastern-influenced synth lines of superb opener ‘BMX’ to the crystalline drift of closer ‘Sky Rider’, Machine Is My Animal carries the listener through a glistening science fiction future, as viewed from a wistful child’s window.
On single ‘Stranger Than Fiction’, swirling synth sounds, Thomas Diakomichalis’ propulsive drumming and Jarrod Manuel’s pure vocal tones glide beautifully. Its aching melodies to the fore, the song taking heartrending turns before dissolving into the ether. ‘Skeletons’ glides and weaves like a hovercar over the course of seven levitating minutes, before the epic title track stomps across a dystopian future like a Transformer with a conscience, its robot heart bleeding as its surveys the devastation it has wrought. This balance between cold synthesized tones and a warm emotional heart creates a delicious balance throughout..."
"Machine Is My Animal" and "The Spook" are both now available on CD and in all digital formats, including lossless, from the Hidden Shoal Store and all good third-party digital music stores.
"...You know when you catch a faint smell of something that totally spins you out and reminds you of something you haven’t though about since you were six, completely changing your day? City of Satellites have synthesised this feeling into music…"