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Man & Machine — Earthman
(Fruits de Mer Friends of the Fish 94, 2026, 10" / DL)

by Henry Schneider, Published 2026-08-27

Earthman Cover art

Earthman is the first Fruits de Mer vinyl release by Man & Machine, the project of Scottish singer, guitarist, and songwriter Tom Roche. Listening to its six tracks is rather like entering a non-Euclidean musical space. Familiar psychedelic and progressive rock reference points appear throughout, but they are arranged at improbable angles, creating a warped sonic environment that somehow remains coherent from beginning to end. Roche is joined by Stuart MacLeod on guitar and keyboards, Sam Waller on drums, and Andy Lawrie on keyboards. Although the recordings were assembled over several years, the resulting EP possesses a remarkable sense of unity. Each track occupies a different corner of Roche's musical universe, yet all seem governed by the same peculiar internal logic. One of the album's most distinctive features is Roche's voice. His high tenor initially had me convinced that Man & Machine featured a female vocalist, but it is Roche himself. The ethereal quality of his singing enhances the music's dreamlike character, acting almost as a guide through terrain where conventional musical directions rarely apply. The title track opens with a blend of vintage psychedelic sensibilities and contemporary production, establishing the EP's strange gravitational pull from the outset. "Sleepyhead" drifts through increasingly odd passages before concluding with a toy piano rendition of "Frère Jacques," while "Lost at Sea" wraps acoustic guitar and spectral vocals in a haunting atmosphere that would not seem out of place in a David Lynch film. The brief "Safespace" employs reversed tapes and manipulated sounds as a transitional piece before "Earthman (Lost in Space)" brings the journey full circle. The EP's high point is the five-minute instrumental "Otherworldly." Free of vocals, the piece allows the music's underlying architecture to come fully into focus. Floating keyboards, spacious guitar textures, and a hypnotic sense of motion create a track that feels simultaneously familiar and disorienting, as though musical space itself has become curved. What makes Earthman succeed is its refusal to follow predictable routes. Roche and his collaborators draw from psychedelia, progressive rock, experimental soundscapes, and pop melody, but never settle comfortably into any one category. Like a non-Euclidean structure, the music shouldn't quite fit together as seamlessly as it does, yet somehow it remains internally consistent from beginning to end. That ability to make the improbable sound natural is Earthman's greatest achievement, and it leaves one hoping this Fruits de Mer debut will not be Man & Machine's last.

Filed under: New releases, 2026 releases

Related artist(s): Man & Machine (Tom Roche)

More info
http://manmachine3.bandcamp.com/album/earthman-ep

 

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