B-Side Guys

Music that exists outside language often communicates most directly with our subconscious. On “rebootrebirth,” Philadelphia-based musician Brian Maher (performing as brokenaboutmachines) creates a wordless transmission that bypasses verbal processing entirely, crafting an instrumental landscape where electronic precision and organic warmth achieve unlikely harmony.

As opening salvo for the forthcoming “brokenparts” project—which will include visual accompaniment from VFX artist Stephen Chandler—”rebootrebirth” establishes both sonic and conceptual coordinates. The track constructs a narrative arc without relying on a single lyric, creating what Maher describes as the sensation of “a spaceship starting up, but the astronaut keeps falling in and out of dissociative states.” This premise transforms what might otherwise be abstract experimentalism into guided journey, providing just enough conceptual framework to orient listeners without limiting interpretive possibilities.

What immediately distinguishes “rebootrebirth” is its resourceful fusion of electronic and acoustic elements. The chopped drum break that initiates the track serves as foundation for layers that incrementally build into something simultaneously mechanical and organic. This approach reflects Maher’s background as a classically trained percussionist with particular expertise in vibraphone and marimba—instruments that themselves occupy liminal space between melodic and percussive realms.

Most fascinating is the track’s technical origin story. By recording vibraphone performances and converting them to MIDI, then routing them through multi-sampled guitar VSTs, Maher creates a distinctive timbral signature—sounds that behave like guitar but maintain the rhythmic sensibility of mallet percussion. This innovative approach generates textures that feel simultaneously familiar and disorienting, perfectly complementing the astronaut protagonist’s dissociative states.

The influences Maher cites—post-rock outfits like The Appleseed Cast and Grimace Federation alongside bedroom electronic artists like Dntel and B. Fleischmann—illuminate the track’s unique positioning at the intersection of rock instrumentation and electronic methodology. This intersection feels particularly appropriate for a millennial artist who came of age in the early 2000s when these genres were experiencing significant cross-pollination.

Most compelling is the personal subtext beneath the cosmic narrative. Created in 2019 after Maher’s separation from his ex-wife, “rebootrebirth” transforms personal reinvention into interstellar exploration. The emotional cocktail he describes—”excitement, change, renewal, evolution and hope, mixed with the ominous power of the unknown”—creates resonance beyond the track’s sci-fi framework, suggesting how our internal reconfigurations sometimes require spacecraft-scale metaphors to fully comprehend.