Artist The Secret Machines

Space-rockers The Secret Machines received a warm welcome with their heaving 2004 debut Now Here Is Nowhere. But 2006’s less proggy Ten Silver Drops—coupled with the announcement that longtime member Ben Curtis had left the band to focus on School Of Seven Bells—dropped the group surprisingly under the radar. That’s where it's stayed, but solidly: The band's self-titled album from 2008 revisits much of the glammy, psychedelic corners of albums past, but it also shows a group more invested in what it’s going for.  

Updated 09/15/2009