Fuzz Meadows Premiere “You Are the Void”; Debut Album Orange Sunshine Out May 6
Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on March 29th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Having offered their willfully double-slashed debut EP, Dogma//Clairvoyance (discussed here), in 2020 and signed to Copper Feast Records at the beginning of this year, Melbourne instrumentalist heavy psych trio Fuzz Meadows have set a May 6 release date for their first full-length, Orange Sunshine. If the title sounds familiar, you may be thinking of the underrated Dutch rockers of the same name, or indeed that it was the original moniker of Blue Cheer, taken for the name of another kind of LSD. Whatever the particular source, I think you get the idea. The title-track “Orange Sunshine” is streaming now, and hell’s bells if it doesn’t apply itself to that standard. In representing the three-piece of guitarist Domenic Evans, bassist Louis Smith and drummer Prince Jayasundera, it doesn’t quite speak to the full dynamic brought to bear across the entire album, but it certainly makes an impression, and that’s pretty clearly the idea.
Fuzz Meadows come across as schooled in the ways of sans-vocals heavy psychedelia, and where at the outset with “You Are the Void,” they seem to specifically exude a pastoral serenity born of Yawning Man-style jamming, by the time they get to “Benji” at the finish, it’s not a surprise to find them diving into the more weighted end of heavy post-rock, casting a spaciousness with guitar that feels all the more launched for the low end residing beneath. Shades of Russian Circles, Pelican, even Monolord show up in that 14-minute last cut by the time it’s halfway through, but even that doesn’t cover the sweeter drift in the back end of the song; an experiment that calls to mind what might’ve been had Sungrazer kept going but in context is still just a part of what Fuzz Meadows do, echoing the manipulated howls early in “Reach” and the build that ensues, willing to push into harder-hitting terrain than a lot of acts in the style — ready, in other words, to crush as well as space out.
And more, the shifts from one moment to the next are dizzying in light of the hypnosis the band cast. Orange Sunshine is not just a question of volume trades back and forth, but of graceful transitions that capture the listener’s attention on their own and then turn into something else, sometimes sweeping, sometimes gently letting go. As the title-track crashes in — one of the album’s most largesse-minded moments — the expanse that’s been set up through the first two pieces is brought to a new stage for the centerpiece, and they make it move. Again, some of the lead guitar rings out à la Yawning Man, but the rhythm that accompanies is more strictly progressive, like Colour Haze with more shimmer. Goes without saying this is all excellent stylistic company to keep for an act making heavy psychedelia, and just to emphasize the point, Fuzz Meadows never seem to fail to bring these influences and others into the breadth of their craft. “Orange Sunshine” becomes a head-all-the-way-under wash before setting itself to a final minute-plus of effects drone, and feels intended to complement the more straight-ahead riffing that emerges from the foreboding open of the subsequent “Death Echo.”
Even here, Fuzz Meadows find another level of heft, and in the case of “Death Echo,” pace, as the song hits into a thrust of groove that could be cast as a brief homage to Karma to Burn, but it’s just one more movement consumed by the overarching flow of Orange Sunshine in its entirety. And that’s seemingly how the album was intended to be heard — in full, its five songs and 41 minutes running one into the next, feeding and building off each other such that the momentum established by “Death Echo” en route to “Benji” is a payoff not only for itself or the title-track before it, but everything prior. True, on vinyl the last two tracks answer back as a side B unto themselves, but they remain in conversation with the first three, and “Orange Sunshine” resounds gracefully in letting its minimalism give way to the silence of a side split, something not quite echoed but not quite not by “Benji” at the culmination of side B. The closer is less patient in its final-final-final measures, but still adds plenty of scope to the procession of the record and its feeling of outward growth still to come.
Under the player below, you’ll find the release announcement, relatively fresh off the PR wire, as well as the all-important preorder link. The stream of the title-track is also available at the bottom of the post.
As always, I hope you enjoy:
Fuzz Meadows, “You Are the Void” track premiere
FUZZ MEADOWS /// Oz Rock’s Rising Psych Instrumentalists to Release Debut Album this May
Orange Sunshine, the debut album by Fuzz Meadows is released May 6th on Copper Feast Records
Preorder: https://www.copperfeastrecords.com/product-page/fuzz-meadows-orange-sunshine
Primed and ready to breach the Northern Hemisphere, and to take on the world full tilt, Fuzz Meadows are a commanding psychedelic rock trio, and an act that has already made sizeable waves across the underground in recent years.
Hailing from Melbourne and featuring members of other local favourites The Black Heart Death Cult, Silurian and Ninety Ninety Hate, the band will release Orange Sunshine – their long-awaited debut album – on Sydney/London-based label Copper Feast Records, this May.
Having spent several years touring and honing their sound, the band put out a limited run of tapes for their debut Dogma//Clairvoyance EP in 2020, a release which quickly caught the attention of psych collectors across the US and Europe.
Drawing from a unique well of inspiration, Fuzz Meadow’s instrumental sound is one that’s embedded in the imposing and cinematic scope of post rock, the gorgeously crafted vistas of psychedelia and shoegaze, and the earth-shaking magnitude of metal. Heavy, beautiful, buzzing with energy; it’s the kind of devastating symphony that only truly comes alive, when played by three close friends exchanging riffs and ideas into the early hours.
Orange Sunshine by Fuzz Meadows will be released on 6th May via Copper Feast Records. In the meantime, you can stream and share the album’s title track here and pre-order here: https://www.copperfeastrecords.com/product-page/fuzz-meadows-orange-sunshine
TRACK LISTING:
1. You Are The Void
2. Reach
3. Orange Sunshine
4. Death Echo
5. Benji
Recorded at Vagabond Studios, June 2021
Produced by Fuzz Meadows, Engineered, mixed and mastered by Josh Bills
Artwork by Louis Smith with waterfall photo taken by Niyanta Sharma in Kere Kere, New Zealand
FUZZ MEADOWS:
Domenic Evans – Guitar
Prince Jayasundera – Drums
Louis Smith – Bass
Fuzz Meadows, “Orange Sunshine”
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