These days, in an infinite musical universe, it’s not enough to simply make good music (which is hard enough). If you don’t have much luck or the right connections, it’s a matter of hard work to be heard. UK garage-psych quintet The Dream Machine is living proof that this can pay off, as the audience and the praise grew with every performance where they played songs from their debut LP (Thank God It’s The Dream Machine) and its follow-up (Small Time Monsters).

With their third full-length album (Fort Perch Rock, named after the coastal defense battery built 200 years ago to protect the Port of Liverpool)—they call it “a gritty love letter to seaside life, brimming with raw emotion and fuzz-soaked guitars” (citing The Lemon Twigs, Felt, The Strokes, Television, and The Walkmen, but also Phil Spector’s productions, as inspirations)—they continue their upward trend. Guitars still roar like the tide, but the twelve new songs are a bit warmer and more controlled (call it maturity), resulting in a magnetic effect that reflects the band name to a greater extent.

This is what a bold path to an unruly triumph sounds like.

Fort Perch Rock—self-produced—is out now on CD and vinyl LP through Run On Records / Modern Sky UK.

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