Continuing Elektrohasch Schallplatten’s streak of supporting high-grade next gen fuzz and heavy psych, Dutch trio The Machine’s fourth album, Calmer than You Are points its Lebowski-referential finger right in your face and challenges you to prove the title wrong. Good luck. Led by guitarist/vocalist David Eering and filled and thickened by the rhythm section of bassist Hans van Heemst and drummer Davy Boogaard, the band has grown more over the course of the five years they’ve been together than the four records they’ve put out in that time can tell. Calmer than You Are is comprised of seven varied tracks for a total of a bit under 46 minutes of jam-based songwriting, very much driven by Eering’s fuzz and wah. He is a stellar lead player and constructs engaging grooves in his riffs, and as eight-minute opener “Moonward” shifts from its subdued, sitar-infused opening to the more raucous final third (there’s a clear divide at 5:39, you’ll pardon me if I don’t give the actual percentage of the song that makes up), it’s clear The Machine are ready to join the ranks of Sungrazer at the fore of their country’s fuzz rock scene. Indeed, Calmer than You Are shows the two bands have a lot in common stylistically and atmospherically, though The Machine’s production is a bit rawer and the songs as a whole less directly reliant on echo to sustain their tones. Not that The Machine are lacking for echo or reverb – Eering’s vocals on “Scooch” alone fill any quota that might crop up – but especially for Boogaard’s drums, the overall sound of Calmer than You Are is somewhat more stripped down than was Sungrazer’s Mirador, whatever else the two records might share between them or however well they might complement each other.

The Machine’s third album and Elektrohasch debut, Drie (review here), was nearly 80 minutes long, so it’s worth noting that they’ve significantly cut the sheer amount of material that makes up Calmer than You Are, and predictably, that works somewhat to the benefit of the individual tracks. Both “Scooch” and the more blatantly stoner rock start-stop riffing of “Grain,” which follows, are clearly jam-based, but The Machine have gone so far as to distill the jams down into discernible structures. There’s still room for Eering to rip into soulful solos for a few bars, and other tracks take that further, but “Grain” in particular proves excellently that The Machine have more to them than just tonal warmth and a propensity for grooving. It’s the work of burgeoning songwriters beginning to come of age as a band. On “Scooch,” it’s van Heemst’s bass that most shines, but whoever’s in the lead of the trio – Boogaard does his time out front of the mix as well – they’re showing a sense of diversity in their approach and not so much bending their sound to make and album as bending an album to fit their sound. The eight-minute “DOG,” which rounds out side A of Calmer than You Are is a standout and one of the best songs of the bunch. Akin in its beginning rhythm to Sungrazer’s “Common Believer,” it soon pushes into the LP’s most memorable hook and fullest-sounding chorus. Eering shows how far he’s come as a vocalist since the band’s 2007 debut, Shadow of the Machine, found them getting their bearings very much in a fashion after Colour Haze, and a lengthy instrumental jam in the midsection bridges a gap between the verse/chorus tradeoffs and what The Machine has previously shown of themselves on their prior efforts. Grandiose heaviness ensues and with great skill, Eering and company bring the chorus around once more before giving in to a minute-plus of warm feedback and noise to fade out to wind noise to close the first half of the album.

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Dutch heavy psych jammers The Machine make a dense run on their aptly-titled third album, Drie. The full-length, their Elektrohasch debut, follows on the heels of two strong LPs, 2007’s self-released Shadow of the Machine and 2009’s Solar Corona (Nasoni), and while both of those were over an hour long, Drie goes about as far as you possibly can on an album and still stay on a single disc, clocking in at a whopping 79:23. It is jam packed with packed jams. The Rotterdam power trio make their winding way through cuts ranging from the straightforward to the ultra-extended, giving the album a varied feel despite The Machine’s not changing much tonally throughout. The vibe is live, the flow is easy and the groove is distinctly European, right in line with fellow Elektrohasch newcomers Sungrazer, but still discernable from them and still imbued with a personality and playing style mostly their own.

I was fortunate enough to see The Machine at the 2010 Roadburn Afterburner (they’ll play 2011’s as well) and I picked up their albums after that, eager to discover how their set’s spontaneity translated to plastic. Sure enough, the tonal warmth present in David Eering’s guitar live comes across on both prior The Machine albums, but perhaps most so on Drie, where Eering sounds more comfortable and assured of his playing than ever before, unafraid to add a little Hendrix or mid-‘90s Josh Homme-style whimsy to the central riff of “Sunbow” before the song branches out into one of Drie’s several massive jams. Kyuss is a central influence, specifically And the Circus Leaves Town on that early track and “Gardenia” from Welcome to Sky Valley in the chorus of “Medulla,” which follows. Where The Machine shows their unique edge is mostly in the flourishes of their jams, and on that level, a headphone listen to Drie is a more rewarding experience, giving the soft, Colour Haze-esque lines from Eering extra push beyond that of drummer Davy Boogaard’s ride cymbal.

Another characteristic that stands the three-piece out not necessarily in terms of what they’re doing but how they do it is bassist Hans van Heemst, whose low end perfectly captures the essence of ‘90s stoner rock in a way American bands either simply can’t or flat-out refuse to acknowledge. On the more straightforward opener “Pyro” and during the midsection of the three-part, 15:50 “Tsiolkovsky’s Budget” (the subtitles being “S-IC,” “S-II” and “S-IVB”), van Heemst inserts casual runs beneath Eering’s guitar that both keep the rhythm moving and make the song all the richer and more complex, wonderfully complementing both the warmth of the guitar and the cut-through of Boogaard’s drums. On the preceding briefer acoustic interlude “Aurora,” it’s Eering front and center with some building and fading noise behind (another spot on Drie justifying the headphone listen), but although both Boogaard and Eering are already playing by then, it’s not until van Heemst comes in during the intro of “Tsiolkovsky’s Budget” that the song has actually started. He’s not overly technical or showy in his playing, but his tone is essential to what The Machine are doing here, and a big part of the hypnotic effect they’re able to do so well.

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I first noted The Machine‘s sonic similarities to Colour Haze after their set at Roadburn this year, and lo, here we are a scant six months later and the praiseworthy Dutch psychedelonauts have signed to Elektrohasch for the immanent release of their appropriately-titled third album, Drie. In the picture to the right, you can see the band hard at work on the recording.

Now, I’m not saying I’m solely responsible for getting The Machine signed to Elektrohasch — which is owned by Colour Haze guitarist/vocalist Stefan Koglek — or anything like that. Actually, screw it. That’s totally what I’m saying. Sorry folks. This one was all me. Full credit. All mine.

Congratulations to all parties involved, myself included. Here’s what Koglek, who’s apparently also knee-deep in recording the next Colour Haze album, had to offer as far as info on the release in his latest newsletter:

The Elektrohasch debut of Dutch guitar-psychedelicians The Machine is in print on CD and will be available for 13 Euro plus postage directly at www.elektrohasch.de, or at your favorite dealers. The DLP will follow up soon.