Psych-folk rockers Wax Machine have vibe to spare if you’re ready for some. The Brighton, UK-based project spearheaded by Brazilian-born multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Lau will release their second full-length, Hermit’s Grove, on July 1. I haven’t heard the full thing, but there are three songs streaming already, so if this is the first you’re reading about it — and given that the entire universe is more on its shit than I am, I suspect it’s not — there’s plenty to dig into. I don’t think you’ll regret it as a way to spend a little time with some audio.

Wax Machine signed to Beyond Beyond is Beyond in latest-2019 and from there released their debut, Earthsong of Silence, in Spring 2020. Escapism ensued. The band says Hermit’s Grove is coming out through Batov Records, and that’s fine of course — bands changing labels between albums sometimes is a thing, you know — but my question comes in where the Bandcamp address for Hermit’s Grove preorders still has “bbib” in it and the Batov Records link on that page goes to Beyond Beyond is Beyond. Bottom line is there’s some relation between the labels or at very least a collaboration on this release, and I’m leaving it at that because I don’t imagine anyone cares enough to warrant this paragraph continuing. But these are the things I think about. And get wrong. All the time.

I honestly don’t know if I’ll get to hear this record or not, but I saw it was coming and wanted to put out the note because I liked the last one. Simple creature.

From social media:

WAX MACHINE – ‘Hermit’s Grove’

Our second album ‘Hermit’s Grove’ will be released on Batov Records on 1st July and is available for pre-order here – https://batov.lnk.to/HermitsGrove

Limited edition coloured vinyl is sold out already and the black copies are selling fast.

Artwork by the one and only @andrew_mcgranahan

This album was made during a transformational time in my life. The music was a doorway into an inner world beyond the limitations of my old identity. It is an invocation of the Sun and the Sea. An exploration into the tones of my Brazilian roots. The sound of surrendering to blissful solitude. An ode to mother Earth and a call for reconnection with her divine flow.

It was also mostly recorded and mixed in a tiny closet room directly above the mortuary in a funeral care place. It was quite a challenge working around the hum of the refrigerator, trying to keep my feet warm and dealing with the ghosts in the machine…
Love to all! – Lau

Compositions written and arranged by Lau, except for Canto De Iemanjá (written by Vinícius de Moraes and Baden Powell)

Lau – guitars, bass, vocals, percussion, drums (on Springtime)
Toma Sapir – drums, percussion, samples/synths
Isobel Jones – flute, vocals
Adam Campbell – electric piano
Freddie Willatt – tenor saxophone
Marja Burchard – vibraphone (on Gaian Dream)
Ella Russell – vocals (on Canto De Iemanjá)
Kate Mager – bass (on Canto De Iemanjá)

https://www.facebook.com/waxmachine
https://www.instagram.com/waxmachinemusic/
https://waxmachine.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/batovrecords
https://instagram.com/batovrecords
https://twitter.com/batovrecords
https://batovrecords.com/

https://www.facebook.com/beyondbeyondisbeyond/
https://www.instagram.com/bbib/
https://soundcloud.com/mike-newman
https://www.twitter.com/BBiB/

Wax Machine, Hermit’s Grove (2022)

With two 2018 EPs under their collective belt and a debut album titled Earthsong of Silence set to release on the vernal equinox, Brighton, UK, psychedelic whathaveyouists Wax Machine have inked a deal with Beyond Beyond is Beyond, whose sense of curation is, as ever, on the proverbial money. The now-UK-based outfit’s little-of-this-little-of-that sound suits them well on their past work, and the fact that they recorded their first record with Go Kurosawa from Kikagaku Moyo is bound not to hurt their cause. There’s no audio from the record yet, but the signing is still pretty newly announced and preorders start early January — I’m expecting next Monday to bring an everybody’s-back-to-work flood of press releases — so maybe at that point a song will leak out.

A recent live jam is streaming now to tide one over, and of course the two aforementioned EPs are up on Bandcamp for your casual perusal.

From the PR wire:

Introducing…Wax Machine!

Wax Machine’s debut LP “Earthsong of Silence” coming out March 20, 2020 (the vernal equinox) on Beyond Beyond is Beyond! Tunes coming soons…

Brighton’s Wax Machine are a band so steeped in the kernel of psychedelic seep that there’s every indication they may have slipped through a side door in space-time and sprouted anew a few years back on the UK coast. However, for all intents and purposes it’s best to believe that they truly sprang from the fertile mind of Brazilian-born, Italian/English-raised Lau Ro (Guitar/Vocals). Lau’s international upbringing served as the wellspring for some of the eclectic taste that informs the core of Wax Machine’s sound. On Earthsong of Silence (March 20th), that eclecticism incorporates Spiritual Jazz, Pop, Krautrock and Tropicália while filtering them all through a psychedelic lens.

On his journey Lau met up with fellow Brighton musicians and birthed Wax Machine with Isobel Jones, who adds soaring vocals and provides Wax Machine’s entrancing flute work alongside Toma Sapir who locks down a groove on the kit that keeps Earthsong of Silence from floating into the ether.

The flutes, wandering guitars, and jazz touches come rising through the mists with a guiding hand from Kikagaku Moyo’s Go Kurosawa behind the boards. With Earthsong, they add a new dimension to their sound, further exploring both their English psych-folk roots and mining a deeper appreciation for a West Coast sound dipped in sun, peace and GROOVE.

First single & pre-order coming early January. For now…

https://www.facebook.com/waxmachine
https://www.instagram.com/waxmachinemusic/
https://waxmachine.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/beyondbeyondisbeyond/
https://www.instagram.com/bbib/
https://soundcloud.com/mike-newman
https://www.twitter.com/BBiB/

Wax Machine, Live Jam from Rialto Theatre, Brighton, UK, Nov. 23, 2019

Wax Machine, Mind Palace (2018)