Machine

Machine is a US disco, funk, pop and soul group from Brooklyn, active from 1967 to 1981. The line-up includes Clare Bathé, August Darnell, Lonnie Ferguson, Melvin Lee, Kevin Nance and Jay Stovall.

Career

The group forms in New York City in the 1970s and works as a studio-oriented disco act. Jay Stovall originally forms an early version of the group in 1973 with the single “One Guy Too Late”, written and produced by Van McCoy for United Artist records/Abbot. The act is later reformed in New York City in 1977 with an intention to make a funk rock group. It records for RCA Victor and RCA.

Machine releases its self-titled debut album in 1979. Its best-known track is “There but for the Grace of God Go I”, which becomes a disco hit and reaches number 8 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, number 77 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 91 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The song is later recognised in dance-music lists and appears in The Pitchfork 500. A version also appears in the 2016 Netflix series The Get Down, and the track is featured in Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City.

The group’s second and final album, Moving On, appears in 1980 and is issued with the singles “Is It Love” / “I Finally Found” and “Power and Reason” / “Thunder, Lightning, and Rain”. The album sells poorly. The group ends in 1981. August Darnell later forms Kid Creole and the Coconuts, who record a cover of “There but for the Grace of God Go I” in 1980.

Reformation

In 2009, Jay Stovall, Kevin Nance and Clare Bathé reform Machine for a tour.