Machine Listener

Matthew Gallagher, an acclaimed visual artist and sculptor based in Cleveland, uses the name Machine Listener for his free-form electronic music ventures. On recordings like 2019's Colubrid, he spikes fluid, shifting synth textures with fractured, unpredictable beat patterns. Since the late 2000s, Gallagher has produced and curated the annual Voice of the Valley Noise Rally in West Virginia. He graduated from Oberlin College in 2013, where he studied Studio Art and Technology in Music and Related Arts, and won the AICUO Excellence in Visual Arts Grand Award during his senior year. He established a performance and visual arts lab called Research & Development, as well as a performance series of the same name. He began releasing Machine Listener cassettes, ranging from modular synth improvisations to "electromagnetic field recordings," in 2013. His first vinyl LP, the drone-based Endless Coil, was issued by Tusco/Embassy in 2016. Le Creuset, Gallagher's collaboration with Jake Johnson, produced a self-titled LP in 2017. Colubrid, one of Machine Listener's more beat-heavy recordings, was released by Hausu Mountain in 2019. ~ Paul Simpson