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About Cloud Machines from the desks of Church Of Girl:

Cloud Machines is an unrefined, epic montage of textures, ancestral beats and astonding vocal layers.

The 5 song disc maneuvers urgent depths of grayed out restlessness and emerges on the other side in a gospel like fervor wearing psychedelic dance rock shoes.

On Cloud Machines, Swallows continue to expand the boundaries of their vision of pop music. Duality and opposition drive Swallows music: Poppy and danceable yet dark and brooding. A Brigade of drums and thundering tribal beats create a raucous trance interlaced with intricate, soul infused vocal layers. Strong bursts, "beautifully-messy" breakdowns and genius redevelopments are the perfect metaphor for Swallows as they navigate densely spacious territory in music - and in life.

The songs are sonic tales of the band's experiences as young queer musicians, the excitement of traveling, the pressures of pursing the American Dream as well as personal relationships - all told with a dose of their endearing sense of humor. Experimentally, the record is dense, rowdy, elevating and spaciously arranged.

Both band mates took on new artistic challenges in the song arrangement and recording process. Prior to Cloud Machines, Brownlowe established her songwriting technique as a rhythem guitarist. The addition of the loop pedal in the song writing for the new EP allowed her to branch out and experiment with lead parts on top of the basic guitar tracks. Miller's melodic percussive style continues to be innovative filling out the lower register without the support of standard beats. He relates the duos work on Cloud Machines to the big switch in the late seventies when bands like Patti Smith and the Raincoats made the switch from punk to world/dance/tribal/jazz influenced work. "I feel like I can see a real mirror between that and what has been happening in our own song writing, " Jon said.

Cloud Machines, was recorded with the intent of capturing the raw, visceral and emotive sonic landscapes they envisioned in their minds. The instrumentation was recorded together, in Kipp Crawford's studio, in only two days. Em Brownlowe recorded all vocal melodies and harmonies in the band's practice studio. For the artwork, Swallows wanted to echo the nature of their music. They commissioned Andrew Roberts to create a desolate industrial world being championed by neon colored birds. The title "Cloud Machines" is based on an explanation Jon's parents gave him as a child when they drove from their nural New Jersey home into Philadelphia or New York City. "There are these massive industrial rigs all along the highway, and they churn out a TON of smog and steam. At night they have thousands of yellow lights shining all over them and it is really menacing, but in a way, very beautiful. My parents told me that this was where clouds came from: Cloud Machines."