The Dream Machine - Fort Perch Rock

The Dream Machine have released their third album Fort Perch Rock via Run On Records. Written, recorded and self-produced in their hometown of the Wirral, it feels both rooted and restless.

On 2024’s sophomore record Small Time Monsters, the Wirral outfit picked up where their debut left off. Melody was everything, and they wielded it well. Allowing more time to pass between albums has given them space to regroup and reimagine what it means to be The Dream Machine. Bridging old and new are ‘Flowers on the Razor’ and ‘Things That Make Us Cry’. The former leans into the vocal melodicism that lit up ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘Children, My England’, as frontman Zak McDonnell delivers anguished layers of heartbreak (“without your love it won’t be the same”). Meanwhile, Matthew Gouldson plants the seeds of renewal, his guitars reaching the fuzzy, bugged-out heights of Anton Newcombe. ‘Things That Make Us Cry’ takes their gift for melody somewhere more whimsical, channelling Richard Hawley’s romantic sweep, Beach Boys’ pop sensibilities, and a touch of Phil Spector grandeur.

Elsewhere, the album pulls at calmer threads: ‘Julie on the Rocks’, ‘If I Could Be King’, and ‘The First Bird’. They expertly slow the pace on ‘Julie on the Rocks’, letting the bright furore of The Horrors’ Primary Colours dissolve into faded seaside glamour and comedown haze. ‘If I Could Be King’ merges Hawley’s crooning romanticism circa Hollow Meadows with the hazy introspection of Kurt Vile on this CSN-tinged gem where McDonnell somehow sounds godlike, floating above the swell. ‘The First Bird’, an eight-minute psych drama, draws from the mysticism of The Velvet Underground, echoes of The Verve’s ‘Gravity Grave’, and the exploratory ambition of The Coral’s Coral Island.

When they do step on the gas with ‘Duck Bone Fever’ and the title track, there are new layers that keep things from feeling familiar. The former is a freakbeat masterclass, chaotic, skidding along seaside promenades, barely lucid. ‘Fort Perch Rock’ drops Ty Segall into a world of sex, drugs and menace. Both are blessed with divine Newcombe-esque guitar lines, slicing through the album’s atmosphere with immediate force.

It would’ve been easy for the band to stick to the lanes carved out by their first two records. Easier still to choose just one new direction and play it safe. Instead, Dream Machine, when faced with a creative crossroads, chose both routes and forged them as one, and they’re a far better band for it.

The Dream Machine – Thank God! It’s The Dream Machine

Wirral five-piece The Dream Machine released their debut album ‘Thank God! It’s The Dream Machine back in April via Run On Records and Modern Sky UK. The band formed in 2020 when frontman Zac McDonnell quit drumming in The Mysterines and began working at the iconic Parr Studios. Studying the likes of Blossoms and The Coral, McDonnell united Matt Gouldson (lead guitar & backing vocals), Jack Inchboard (bass & backing vocals), Isaac Salisbury (drums), and Harrison Marsden (keyboards) and began to hatch their psychedelic dreams.

Image and artwork courtesy of The Lost Agency

In a world of corruption, war, and failure of leadership like never before, The Dream Machine’s innocent souls are beyond refreshing. Their creative journey without borders or destination rings true through them, as with The Jonestown Massacre in 1995. Newcombe, Mayami, and Gion’s fingerprints can be found on ‘Away For The Summer’ and ‘The Last Temptation’. The former, a ramshackle kaleidoscopic folk number with harmonies so pure that you’ll miss the bitterness (“I'd rather die all on my own than see you again”) swelling. ‘The Last Temptation’ taps into BJM’s colossal sense of destiny and The Coral’s melodic joy on this satanic masterpiece.

The moments when they raise the tempo show that this is a band that can and will do whatever they want! ‘Always On My Mind’ waltzes into view like the devil conducting The Stands. Meanwhile, former single ‘TV Baby / Satan’s Child’ sets fire to Love’s ‘A House Is Not A Motel’. McDonnell’s usually angelic vocal fractures into a James Skelly freak beat moment of genius! Then, in ‘White Shadow Blues’, they erupt into a furious mesh of ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ and Jake Bugg’s early classics ‘Taste It’ and ‘Lightning Bolt’.

What is true of their influences is still typical of the music industry today. They will be judged on their singles. Step forward ‘Lola, In The Morning’ and ‘Children, My England’. The former is blessed with the optimism of The Coral’s ‘In The Morning’, Roger McGuinn’s finesse, and Hamilton Leithauser’s vocals. On ‘Children, My England’, The Dream Machine cross the threshold from upstarts into a world of Richard Hawley and Pete Doherty. Masterful poets lost souls, and romantic souls are searching for a higher ground to set themselves free. The Parisian keys meet the guitars of The Stands and the bands featured on the Children of Nuggets compilation. Shimmering and tumbling guitars provide a perfect backdrop for the lyrics that bed in between Coleridge’s ‘Lyrical Ballads’ and John Cooper Clarke’ 's ‘Ten Years in an Open Necked Shirt’.

‘Thank God! It’s The Dream Machine’ is undoubtedly the most fully formed debut album from a British band in a generation. Perhaps longer. They’re on the precipice of greatness. Flashes of immortality rear up here, making the prospect of their second album mouth-watering.