"With their stunning debut, French art rockers Bruit ≤ have dropped an early contender for album of the year", PROG exclaimed when the album was digitally released on Bandcamp in April 2021, and Neige from ALCEST found it to be "the best post rock I heard in a really long time". We couldn't agree more, but it would curtail this album's scope, grandeur and vision if it were contextualized solely within the post rock world. It certainly does ft in there, but BRUIT ≤ are more than that, BRUIT ≤ are a class of their own.

BRUIT≤ have everything a quintessential post-rock act needs to have, from an excessively long album name to drawn out compositions driven by atmosphere, and from samples of dramatic spoken word recordings to immaculate climaxes led by soaring, delay-soaked guitars. However, for those willing to look past the genre tropes, there are subtle moments where the band effortlessly fows from atmospheric post-metal to free jazz, and from folktronica to neo-classical avant garde improv.

DISTORTED SOUND MAG hit the nail on the head in their 10/10 review of the album: ""The Machine Is Burning And..." is a rare example of humanity achieving something above and beyond the norm, surpassing what is surely possible in emphatic style, it imposes no limitations upon itself and spirals into a cacophony of neatly woven musical styles. Here is an album that does everything at once, crafted by a band that understand not only how to consolidate frequencies and sounds, but also how to fuse together juxtaposed sounds without leaving any of the stitching exposed. The record is seamless constantly drawing our minds from one direction to another and challenging our understanding of what music is."

The Machine is Burning... is a record which despite its bleakness and its moments of immersive sadness somehow always retains a glimmer of hope, leaving the listener with a faint feeling that now everyone knows it CAN happen again!