The album was initially conceived as a four-disc set, but was cut down to two discs.[2]
Release
Machine Soul: An Odyssey Into Electronic Dance Music was released by
Rhino Records on
compact disc on March 14, 2000.[3] The album contains liner notes from
Johan Kugelberg which include an essay on electronic music and covers music not included on the album.[4]
The Austin Chronicle declared the album to be "the most comprehensive and accessible attempt at tracing the lineage of electronic music (since the Seventies, anyway) yet delivered."[4]The Advocate commented on how the album could be used as an educational tool for young electronic music fans, and as a strong example of varied electronic dance music is.[5]AllMusic gave the album five stars, suggesting that some electronic music fans may be upset with the number of tracks led by vocals where the vast majority of electronic dance music has none, but concluded that the release was "an excellent definition of the genre."[1]
Entertainment Weekly opined that the album was "A flawed but nonetheless ambitious anthology on a scale never attempted before", noting that it lacked key tracks to represent the genre and its history fully.[2]SF Weekly discussed the song choices for the album, noting that Rhino opted "for obvious choices (Kraftwerk, New Order, Donna Summer), throwaways (Sparks, Gary Numan's "Cars"), and, worst of all, songs unrepresentative of the culture's underground rep—OMD and Depeche Mode are the Top 40's old news, and the Orb's "Little Fluffy Clouds" has been invalidated by that damn Volkswagen ad. That leaves little opportunity to cram some cred into the tail end of the second disc (BT, Paul Van Dyk) and an overall sense that Rhino's just cashing in on Fatboy Slim, and poorly at that."[6] The review found the release lacking in comparison to
Tommy Boy's The Perfect Beats series, which "succeeds mainly because it focuses on the close ties between techno and hip-hop."[6]
Track listing
Credits adapted from the liner notes of the album.[7]