There are a few aspects of the latest Machinedrum live show that are notoriously tricky to get right. For starters, the set is based on a concept album, itself so often a creative dead-end. Then there's the presence of a drummer, something that rarely makes sense with club music. And it's also important to consider the music's tempo, which regularly exceeds 160 BPM. All of which makes it doubly impressive that the show is killer. At RA's SXSW showcase earlier this year, Travis Stewart, the man behind Machinedrum, and Lane Barrington, his incredibly talented drummer, moved the music around the districts of Vapour City, the imaginary metropolis that Stewart's latest album is based on. The video projection, created by the visual artist Weirdcore, perfectly complemented Stewart's humid style of footwork and jungle. The show climaxed with Barrington playing standing up, as Stewart thrashed on his guitar at the front of the stage. We invited the pair to record an RA Session last month to try and capture some of that magic. They performed a poised medley, which started with the ambient tones of "Vizion," stirred to life with "Center Your Love," and brought things home with the glistening "SeeSea."

Subscribe to RA on YouTube /