It has become clear in recent years that Billy Corgan loves Machina/The Machines Of God a lot more than anyone else does. Corgan has spent a good few years navigating legal wranglings and going through old masters recorded for the reissue of the final record released by the original Smashing Pumpkins line-up (albeit with a twist, because founding bassist D’Arcy left during recording) and the set was finally released as Machina – Aranea Alba Edition on his Corgan’s own Madame ZuZu site last month.
It is, Corgan has explained, the project as he first envisioned it, a mammoth 48-track album plus 32 bonus tracks of outtakes, demos and live recordings. The original release was a fractured, disjointed process befitting a band who were falling apart. Machina/The Machines Of God was released in February 2000, with the plan being that a sister record, Machina II/The Friends And Enemies Of Modern Music, would follow later that year – Corgan’s idea to release them as a double-album had been vetoed by Virgin, the Pumpkins’ record label at the time.
