Wednesday, 13 April 2022

Fuzz Meadows - Orange Sunshine (Album Review)


Release Date: May 06th 2022. Record Label: Copper Feast Records. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl


Orange Sunshine - Tracklisting


1.You Are The Void 

2.Reach

3.Orange Sunshine 

4.Death Echo

5.Benji


Members


Dominic Evans - Guitar, ring-modulator, fuzz worshipper

Price Jayasundera - Drums, assault and battery, breaker of everything he strikes

Louis Smith - Bass, aggressive mud, Moog phaser


Review


Orange Sunshine is the debut album of Aussie Heavy Psych Instrumentalists Fuzz Meadows. Don't let the Heavy Psychedelic tag fool you with this band. As these guys embrace a whole lot more heavy sounds from the genres of Post-Rock, Ambient Rock, Stoner Metal and Sludge Rock all under the free form guise of Acid based Psych Rock. The album is an epic blend of different styles with Fuzz Meadows playing their own brand of Heavy Psych across five tracks on this album.

Fuzz Meadows show what they're made of on the excellent opening track You Are The Void. A song that is bold and refreshing whilst being quite deceiving in all the right places. Strands of Ambient based Post-Rock collide with aggressive Psych Stoner Rock/Metal grooves with a gorgeous tone that even has a slight Post-Metal twinge floating around.

You can hear deep musical influences from bands such as Yawning Man, Earthless, Pelican and Russian Circles to name but a few throughout this album. Though, Fuzz Meadows create their own breathtaking blend of Instrumental Psych Rock/Metal with You Are The Void being a wonderfully multi-layered musical composition.


The songs are quite progressive and they have to be with the many different styles of music Fuzz Meadows play on this record.


Second song Reach sees Fuzz Meadows explore different areas of Psych Rock and Post Rock for the first few moments. The song is cautiously slow before expanding into heavier areas of Psych Rock. The song has a claustrophobic gloomy effect and sounds like the worlds of EARTHLESS, PELICAN and YAWNING MAN coming together for an almighty jam based session. One of the standout tracks on the album is right here when Fuzz Meadows concentrates on the more heavier aspects of the album.

Third song Orange Sunshine is more restrained and calmer compared to the previous two tracks. Fuzz Meadows play delicate lush Ambient based melodies before a subtle Sludgy groove appears for that extra classy step of pure heaviness and fuzzy based distortion. The song is quite slow but you begin to appreciate the style of music more on this song. There's a lot to take in once again but the instrumental work is simply a masterclass of Instrumental Stoner Rock/Metal.

The final two songs of Death Echo and Benji bring a "DARK" vs "LIGHT" aspect respectively with perhaps Death Echo being the strongest out of these two tracks though Benji perhaps has the best uplifting aspects for the whole album.

Fuzz Meadows are an exciting new voice in the realm of Heavy Psychedelic Stoner Rock with Orange Sunshine perhaps allowing the band to become more well known in the scene. If they stick to this creative path for future releases then I can see these guys performing on some of the bigger festival stages the Instrumental Stoner Rock scene has to offer.

Words by Steve Howe


Thanks to Copper Feast Records and Sheltered Life PR for the promo. 


Orange Sunshine will be available to buy on CD/DD/Vinyl via Copper Feast Records from May 06th 2022.


Links


Facebook | BandCamp