NLI Explores Humanity’s Relationship With Technology On ‘Machine Language’
- Undrtone Blog
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
NLI heads to Los Angeles imprint Crisis of Man for her latest release, using the four-track ‘Machine Language’ EP to explore the increasingly blurred relationship between humanity and technology.
The project represents a shift from some of the industrial and classical techno elements that first introduced NLI’s work. Rather than positioning technology as an antagonist, ‘Machine Language’ considers whether humans and machines can coexist as the boundaries between the two continue to change.
Its title track establishes that idea through clicks, glitches and static woven around melancholic vocal elements. ‘Dawn Of The Gods’ takes a darker route, deliberately building tension through an increasingly oppressive atmosphere designed for the more unsettling corners of the dancefloor. That discomfort carries into ‘Antidote’. Low-end growls, electronic bleeps and an unconventional arrangement surround bell-like sounds that gradually take on a more sinister character as the track develops.
“The feeling of a jump of discomfort is what I really wanted to emulate into this track,” NLI explains.
Closing track ‘The Abyss’ takes inspiration from terminal lucidity, the phenomenon in which some people experience an unexpected return of mental clarity shortly before death. NLI uses the concept as the starting point for a composition centred around release and clarity, while reflecting the increasingly open-ended approach to techno production within the current underground.
The EP arrives during a significant first year for NLI. After emerging in November 2025 with her debut album, she has continued developing her catalogue through her own ADHESIVE imprint while gaining wider attention for an industrial, classically influenced approach to techno.
That momentum has also moved beyond the studio, with debut appearances at both Junction 2 and Berlin institution Tresor taking place this summer. With ‘Machine Language’, NLI uses her first appearance on Crisis of Man to move beyond the sound of those initial releases, placing ideas around death, rebirth and technological evolution at the centre of the music.
