Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music is the sixth studio album by the American alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins. It was released for free on the Internet on September 5, 2000. Plans for a standard physical release, bundled with the first part Machina/The Machines of God, were revealed to happen sometime in 2013, but was postponed due to legal setbacks. In an Instagram Q&A in 2018, the band's frontman, Billy Corgan, revealed that all legal issues had been resolved. The two albums were remastered and released as a deluxe box set on September 5, 2025.

The album itself, a double LP, was packaged with three EPs full of B-sides and alternate versions. The album's artwork was created by Carlos Segura. Both Machina albums are loose concept albums telling the story of "a rock star gone mad". A previous live performance of the song, in an earlier and slightly different-than-final-version form, had been broadcast as a portion of Kiss' 1998 Psycho Circus Halloween special, where The Smashing Pumpkins served as the opening act.

Critical reception

Because it was not released conventionally, few professional reviews of the album were published; however, those that surfaced were generally positive. The A.V. Club called it an "artistic high" for the band. The Michigan Daily also published a review calling the music "some of the best Pumpkins material to date".

In April 2010, Billy Corgan commented on the album's reception, stating that: "I think the fan response at the time was very positive, as the fans who were around at the time seemed to like Machina II better than Machina I. That said, Machina I is proving now to be the more influential part of the work for many of the younger bands that I've talked to. [...] At the time I saw [releasing the album for free] as a one-time thing. I never thought we would see a near collapse of the music business and its dominant control on how music reaches people."

25th anniversary reissue

On January 28, 2021, NME reported that the Machina reworking was complete and Billy Corgan stated that it will contain at least 80 songs. On March 31, 2025, Corgan announced that a twenty-fifth anniversary box set edition of the material from Machina/The Machines of God and Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music would be released on August 22, 2025. The new Machina: Aranea Alba Editio contains 80 fully remixed and remastered songs including the majority of Machina II, divided as a 48-song version of a combined Machina and 32 b-sides, outtakes and live cuts. CR-01, CR-02, etc. all refer to their released on Constantinople Records (Constantinople Records-Released 1, etc.). The only other Constantinople release, CR-05, was Live at Cabaret Metro 10-5-88, a gift given to fans exiting their farewell concert at the Cabaret Metro. The songs "Let Me Give the World to You", "Saturnine", and "Cash Car Star" were originally written and recorded for Adore. The original "Let Me Give the World to You" was produced by Rick Rubin, and was later released on the deluxe edition of the 2014 reissue of Adore, alongside demos and remixes of "Saturnine" and a remixed version of Cash Car Star.

Personnel

  • Billy Corgan – vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, piano
  • James Iha – guitars, bass, vocals on "Go"
  • D'Arcy Wretzky – bass guitar
  • Jimmy Chamberlin – drums, percussion

Release sources

A number of a release sources exist for Machina II. All of them are sourced from vinyl (except for the noted commercial releases of select tracks).

Virgin promos<br/>

This source is from in-house promo CDs made for internal use at Virgin Records (sourced from the vinyl records), made before Machina II was released to the public over the Internet. Two versions of the promos exist, a UK (type I) and U.S. (type II) version, both with four CDs corresponding to the vinyl copies. As it was done in-house at a record company, it is generally assumed to be a high-quality transfer, though some of the faint voices which can be heard in the background before some of the EP songs are cut off, and, in general, it is missing a considerable amount of audio between song transitions.

Q101 transfer<br/>

As mentioned above, the radio station Q101 received one of the 25 vinyl copies. It was subsequently transferred to two CDs by the station (one CD containing the EP tracks and one containing the LP tracks). The transfer was done by a high-profile radio station (presumably with high-end equipment and professional oversight) and spectral analysis shows the transfer to be of good quality. Copies were given away as prizes from the station. It is worth noting that this transfer is the only one to have been digitally mastered.

SPIFC transfer<br/>

The SPIFC transfer was produced from a vinyl copy by a member of the SPIFC. A transfer was eventually performed onto two CDs with "high-end" equipment. The SPIFC offers MP3 downloads of the transfer to members and held a contest giving away CD-R copies. The SPIFC transfer shows a 21&nbsp;kHz tone which casts some doubt on the quality of the transfer.

MP3 web releases<br/>

Following the vinyl release a number of MP3 versions quickly surfaced on the web. A select number of people involved in the Smashing Pumpkins online fan community received one of the 25 releases. Using audio equipment they had immediate access to, these tracks were recorded, encoded to MP3, and quickly released for the masses. Later MP3 releases may be from one of the CD sources listed above or newer lesser-known transfers. The Smashing Pumpkins' official site also had the full 25 tracks for download in both mp3 format (at 320&nbsp;kbit/s) and in RealAudio format. In 2007, the album was once again posted for download on the newly reopened SmashingPumpkins.com.[https://web.archive.org/web/20071019175945/http://www.smashingpumpkins.com/audio_upload/audio/machinaii/]

Commercial releases<br/>

Four tracks from Machina II have been released commercially. These are of specific note, because these versions were sourced from the master tapes rather than amateur vinyl transfers. "Real Love" was featured on Rotten Apples. "Lucky 13" and "Slow Dawn" appeared on Judas O, which was included with early copies of Rotten Apples. The Machina II version of "Try, Try, Try" was one of the B-sides to the "Untitled" single, titled "Try" (Alternate Version). The studio banter that precedes "Try, Try, Try" on Machina II has been removed from this version. All tracks included in Machina 1 and 2 are set to be released on September 5th 2025 in remixed and remastered form on "Machina: Aranea Alba Editio"

References

  • spfc.org: Discography: Machina II/The friends & Enemies of Modern Music
  • spfc.org: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for Machina II/the Friends & Enemies of Modern Music
  • Shattering Fast Alchemical Glass: Art & The Occult of The Smashing Pumpkins' Machina Mystery

Download sites

  • Smashingpumpkins.com https://web.archive.org/web/20071019175945/http://www.smashingpumpkins.com/audio_upload/audio/machinaii/.com/audio_upload/audio/machina