There is a particular discipline required to release nine full albums while refusing to plan any of them in advance, and algorithm & blues captures Bloomfield Machine leaning fully into that increasingly experimental, unplanned process. Working entirely alone from a home studio in Orange County, this Huntington Beach-based multi-instrumentalist writes, records, performs, and mixes every element of their music personally, and this fifteen-track collection represents the ninth entry within a catalogue built specifically around subconscious expression rather than predetermined creative intention.
A Variation of Nothing opens the album with genuinely philosophical framing, suggesting an artist comfortable examining absence and abstraction right from the collection’s opening moments. That title sets real conceptual tone before the remaining fourteen tracks continue exploring whatever specific emotional and sonic territory this considerable project intends toward covering. Chemical Embrace follows with genuinely visceral, almost bodily imagery, hinting at the compositional approach Bloomfield Machine has described directly, letting sounds and effects blur and distort otherwise strong, memorable melodies throughout the track’s actual construction.
The title track Algorithm and Blues arrives specifically at track three, and its early positioning establishes genuine thematic importance for the entire surrounding collection. That title itself captures something genuinely central to the album’s broader concern, examining the intersection between human emotion and machine creation directly, a tension running throughout considerable additional tracks across the record. The Engineered Life continues that technological framing, suggesting genuine examination regarding how contemporary existence increasingly gets shaped and mediated by systems and structures outside pure individual control.
Distraction Machine introduces genuinely self-aware, almost self-referential imagery given the artist’s own chosen project name, while Forensic Smiles carries genuinely unsettling, clinical juxtaposition directly within its title, pairing something as warm as smiling alongside language considerably more associated with investigation and death. Aggressively Unproductive follows with genuine wit, suggesting deliberate resistance against contemporary productivity culture’s constant demands, an interesting thematic thread for an artist who has nonetheless managed to complete nine full albums through consistent creative output.
Hiccup Culture introduces genuinely playful, glitch-adjacent language, fitting naturally alongside an album built from what the artist describes as poking around a vast library of sounds and beats until something genuinely emerges organically. The Waiting Room shifts toward more universally recognizable, almost clinical imagery, suggesting genuine anticipation or uncertainty, themes connecting directly toward the loss and impermanence Bloomfield Machine has described experiencing throughout the months surrounding this album’s actual creation.
Deep Dish Dharma combines genuinely unexpected, almost comedic juxtaposition alongside spiritual terminology, suggesting real willingness toward blending irreverent humor alongside more genuinely contemplative philosophical territory throughout the collection. Threat of Clarity introduces fascinating tension directly within its title, positioning genuine understanding or resolution as something potentially unsettling rather than purely comforting, an unusual and genuinely honest framing for an artist working through considerable personal instability during this album’s actual development.
Meander carries genuine structural honesty, acknowledging the album’s own described unplanned, exploratory creative process directly within a single track title. Stop the Hammering pushes toward considerably more urgent, almost desperate imagery, and that particular phrase resurfaces meaningfully within the album’s accompanying liner notes, suggesting real thematic connection between this specific track and the collection’s broader examination regarding persistence and inevitability. The Void for Beginners introduces genuinely wry, almost instructional framing around existential emptiness, while Time Blind, presented specifically in alternate form, closes the album with genuinely disorienting temporal imagery, an appropriate concluding note for a record so thoroughly concerned with uncertainty and impermanence throughout its considerable runtime.
What gives algorithm & blues genuine emotional weight is understanding the personal circumstances surrounding its actual creation. Bloomfield Machine has described experiencing genuine loss and impermanence throughout the months preceding this album’s completion, circumstances that shook their broader sense of stability considerably. Rather than avoiding music during that difficult period, the artist found that creating continued bringing them back toward genuine purpose, functioning as mood enhancer that has apparently never let them down regardless of whatever external difficulty they were simultaneously navigating.
That therapeutic function matters considerably for understanding the album’s actual purpose beyond pure artistic exercise alone. Bloomfield Machine has described the project as revealing their subconscious in ways verbal expression simply couldn’t access directly, positioning algorithm & blues less as calculated artistic statement and more as genuine necessary outlet during considerable personal difficulty. That distinction gives the album real emotional authenticity, since music emerging from genuine need rather than pure creative ambition alone often carries a different, more urgent kind of honesty throughout its actual construction.
Musically, this particular album showcases a more guitar-forward approach specifically, adding genuine rock element into what has primarily been keyboard-centered work throughout Bloomfield Machine’s broader catalogue. That instrumental shift reflects real technical range, since the artist has described being equally skilled on both instruments despite keyboard functioning as their more primary, established creative tool. Bringing guitar more prominently into this particular collection gives algorithm & blues genuine sonic distinction within the broader nine-album catalogue, demonstrating considerable musical personality extending beyond whatever singular instrumental identity listeners might have previously associated with the project.
The album’s accompanying liner notes, written by Ken Lee of Eleven Shadows after listening through the complete collection, add genuine additional dimension toward understanding algorithm & blues conceptually. Lee’s considered writing examines themes of memory, machine consciousness, and genuine emotional weeping, whether from actual machines or the humans creating and listening to them, extending the album’s central concern regarding the intersection between technology and authentic human feeling directly into accompanying prose. That collaborative addition gives the release genuine additional interpretive layer beyond the music alone, positioning algorithm & blues within a considerably broader artistic conversation regarding what happens specifically when machines become better at things humans have traditionally loved and valued most.
There is something worth noting in how deliberately concise each individual track remains throughout this fifteen-song collection, with the complete album clocking in at just over thirty minutes total. That brevity reflects genuine compositional discipline, allowing considerable variety across the collection’s full runtime without ever overstaying any single track’s particular welcome. Bloomfield Machine has recommended specifically listening through headphones, suggesting genuine detail exists within these compositions that reward close, repeated attention rather than more passive, background listening alone.
What ultimately distinguishes algorithm & blues within considerable contemporary experimental and electronic-adjacent music is its genuine, hard-won emotional honesty beneath deliberately playful, sometimes darkly funny track titles. This is an artist processing genuine personal instability through sustained creative practice, finding in music something considerably more reliable than whatever external circumstances currently feel uncertain or unstable. That combination, genuine difficulty transformed into consistently inventive, detail-rich composition, gives the album real staying power beyond pure sonic novelty alone.
By combining genuinely experimental, unplanned compositional process alongside real emotional vulnerability regarding personal loss and impermanence, Bloomfield Machine has built algorithm & blues into a ninth album that succeeds specifically through its honest reckoning with instability filtered through consistently melodic, detail-rich composition. This collection demonstrates real sustained creative purpose across nine complete albums, using guitar’s expanded presence and considerable sonic experimentation to prove that even amid genuine personal uncertainty, the actual act of creating something new remains capable of providing genuine anchor and meaning, one short, carefully constructed track at a time.
