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.