The Machine – Wave Cannon
Majestic Mountain Records – 2023
Rock, Stoner, Psych, Grunge
Rated: *****
I was there for the final farewell show in the Effenaar in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, that said goodbye to founding member and drummer Davy Boogaard. But this right here, that slab of pure gold that has been spinning for the past month, can perhaps be seen as a final salute, a final shot from a cannon, a final monument, sounding taller, wilder, freakier and more intense, like a gigantic balled up fist towards the heavens. Five years after Faceshift, Dutch stoner rocking trio The Machine are back with Wave Cannon and after this release, only guitarist and vocalist David Eering will be left of the original founding three. But before we get to teared-up, we know The Machine goes on, and we know Mr. Eering has implored drummer Klaas Dijkstra to kick ass with the new set-up that also includes bass player Chris Both, who has been present for the past five years. The Machine rolls on, the three continue, and will have six new tracks to add to their already huge back catalogue of songs. Starting Wave Cannon off is the first single called Reversion, which feels like a river of dreams that steadily flows on top off an extra heavy undercurrent, that slowly dissipates into a calm rippling pool of warmth. On many levels you feel a return to what The Machine is and always has been and probably will be about, a steadiness that feels reassuring, a build-up or in this case a decrease in tension that you desperately want to follow, like the white rabbit, deeper into its hole, and a groove that can make you go into a trance. Reversion is seminal The Machine and feels like the perfect way to start Wave Cannon. Second track Genau Or Never starts with sounds from a wooden wind chime, add the drums, that rolling bass and highly floating guitar work, that slowly and surely become this gigantic, but gradual build up and once again brings you a new wave of The Machine goodness. Glider sees them going off into their perhaps most grungy territory to date, which continues on, on the shortest song from the new album, the three minute and thirty five seconds long Ride On Crash Kick. All four of which perhaps serve as the perfect window into the different sides of The Machine, the more hallucinogenic grooves as the two song starter and the more fuzzy and gritty take on stoner trucking with the final two. Return to Sphere (Kneiter II) is another return to form and shimmies up to the opening track of the album in a way that the original Sphere (… or Kneiter) from 2012 never did. Cause that song, always felt like the king hitter on that Calmer Than You Are album and a stand-alone, stoner rock, high water mark of those first five years of The Machine. The new Sphere track, feels like a stoner rocking cosmic adventure, that does not just serve you a head banging groove but also a destination for your mind. The way they let this heavy psych track crackle and pop and show you a melody that feels as elusive as it is recognizable, is simply stunning. It lures you ever deeper into the labyrinthian space, where the pull not only comes in the form of gravity but also from echoing vocals that soar and give it all this highly Siren quality. Calmer Than You Are bringing you back into focus for only a few seconds. And after that middle mark, the way you feel a calm and peaceful silence permeate the structure and the reverb, the slow rippling waves of trickling sound, punctuated by a return of a tender guitar, slowly building again towards what becomes this rocking and funky ending, referencing the original Sphere and Calmer Than You Are even more. Ending the album is title track Wave Cannon, condensing what the first five tracks did and perhaps even what The Machine has done throughout the era’s that David and Davy sailed the seas of heaviness together. Together they delivered an amazing collection of albums that will forever stand tall among all others in this genre we all love. And Wave Cannon is another chapter in that story, a story that sees The Machine turning over a new page. David and Davy, it seems like a lifetime. And even though we are already eager to hear how it will all translate on stage with the new drummer and what the three that are now The Machine might produce on another album in the future, we do feel tears welling up, every time, those final waves of feedback start rolling in and eventually go full stop…
(Written by JK)
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