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Sunday 28 January 2018

DREAMWEAPON - SOL (Fuzz Club LP, D/L).

Another year and the sheer quality of releases from Fuzz Club remain undiminished. One of the first albums to land in 2018 will be sophomore LP from Portugal’s Dreamweapon and it’s already one of this year’s essential records. Made up of 10,000 Russos bassist Andre Couto, João Campos Costa and Edgar Moreira, they take their name from one of the less celebrated Spacemen 3 LPs, a live album that consists of mainly minimalist drone improvisations inspired by the work of La Monte Young, but based on the trippy otherworldly haze of the new record it fits the band perfectly. Consisting of four extended one take improvisations, SOL sees Dreamweapon dive deep into the narcotic netherworld existing somewhere between waking reality and a somnambulistic dream like state. The hiss of feedback and noise fuse with droning, oscillating synths, samples and subtle cascading guitars with the only thing keeping the sparse soundscapes together being the incessant motorik bassline that forces it’s way right to the back of your unconscious and the stripped back minimalist thud of a drum machine.

The relentless Kraftwerk on acid groove of ‘Mashinne’ opens side one of SOL. Bass and drum machine lock together with Teutonic tightness providing solid bottom end for Dreamweapon’s trance like sonic landscapes that mix drones, guitars and synths to create sprawling near transcendental states. ‘Blauekirshe’ is very much in the same vain, built around rock solid bass lines while the rest of the instruments swirl around the central core, it’s heavily Krautrock influenced but drenched in the fluidity of the best psychedelic music from the last 50 years. Flip the disc and we find the epic almost shamanic ‘Qram’………….primitive, urgent and clocking in at the near 15 minute mark, it’s a distillation of everything Dreamweapon are about, sucking the listener into a vortex of beautiful noise. Whilst you’d be forgiven for thinking this is a “dark” record, what makes SOL such a great album is that on each listen you scratch at the surface some more and uncover little subtle nuances that offer a faint glimmer of hope, like a light at the end of the tunnel………such as the subtle jangling guitars or those moments where all the noise comes together just before the tracks end on a hum of feedback. Closing the record is one of the highlights of the most recent Reverb Conspiracy compilation…………..’Monte da Virgem’ is a motorik monster driven by unstoppable heavy duty bass that is reminiscent of Föllakzoid at their relentless best. It’s a beast of a tune! For their second album Dreamweapon have melded together a mix of elements and influences, while sounding familiar to many bands operating on the edge of reality they have stamped their own unique take on Psych Rock in 2018. Excellent stuff.

Due for release 16/02/2018, SOL will be available on vinyl from all the best record stores and online outlets. Pre-orders are being taken now at the Fuzz Club store.

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