An interesting article, but I'm still not sure what "The Machine" was. Are we talking about all sorts of things, or the tape machine?
Especially interesting was the claim of using vocals as percussion. Had not thought of it that way.
As sibling comment says, a combination of song writer, performer, producer. Much like the Richard Daly "machine" of Chicago politics, it's not a box with a button you can push but a combination of different people and circumstances that produce a result.
I understood the machine = the Quincy Jones–Michael Jackson–Rod Temperton triangle
Exactly. But some would call it a team, not a machine, no?