“String Machine is the solo project of musician David Beck, a Pittsburgh area native whose neo-folk music can be described as eclectic, philosophical, experimental, sincere, and diverse in texture and emotion. String Machine’s debut album Threads from the Youth Fossil is a mosaic of sonic textures and poetic imagery, with lyrics drenched in the visceral wisdom of lost youth. Rough-edged vocals accompany meandering melodies, which float above droning, foggy textures cut with crisp acoustic guitar. Each verse feels like a mystical incantation that is held together by hypnotic repetition, and then swiftly torn apart by jarring rhythmic and stylistic juxtaposition, reminiscent of Neutral Milk Hotel and Weatherbox. The orchestration ranges from stripped-down folk to layered electro-acoustic bombast, worthy of comparison to Sufjan Stevens and Radiohead: unsettling choral harmonies and vocoder doubling, shimmering guitar arpeggios, intense electronic beats and synth leads, well-placed subdued cello, and even the occasional cinematic brass treat. Threads from the Youth Fossil is difficult to classify because of its courageous eclecticism, yet it is easy to love because of its exciting sonic environments and insistence on earnest, unsettling truth.” - Karter Schachner stringmachine.bandcamp.com facebook.com/stringmachine instagram.com/stringmachinemusic