The Dream Machine – Fort Perch Rock: New Music Friday

Artwork for the dream machine's album fort perch rock

The Dream Machine have released ‘Fort Perch Rock’ on New Music Friday – revisit Live4ever’s 4* review and stream the album right here.

We’re nice here so we won’t do spoilers for Angel Heart, the infamous 1987 voodoo horror movie starring Mickey Rourke and Robert De Niro.

Without giving the ending away, one of the final scenes has Rourke – playing a New York private detective called Johnny Favorite – looking deep into a mirror before repeating the phrase, ‘I know who I am’, as he realizes he might have just lost the ultimate game.

Knowing who you are isn’t always a linear journey, one that citizens of the Wirral – the oblong bit across the Mersey from Liverpool – have often had to sign up for themselves.

To most of geographically challenged Britain, the two places are indistinct, but under the microscope things can be different.

Proud of their own heritage, Wiralites point to Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, The Boo Radleys and The Coral as local outfits done good on both sides of the water.

For New Brightonians The Dream Machine postcodes shouldn’t matter, but their sure-to-be breakout third album is named after a fort on the peninsula, whilst its 2024 predecessor Small Time Monsters was produced by The Coral’s James Skelly.

If that was long on whimsy and a bit too lightweight for its own good, Fort Perch Rock is a giant leap forward, not least of which because the quintet, led by singer Zak McDonnell, on it have fully embraced the touchstones of psychedelia and garage rock to great effect.

It’s an inspired decision, acknowledging Merseyside’s (let’s all stay friends here) unique perspective on a musical era which was essayed so thoroughly by a post-Teardrop Explodes Julian Cope in 1983.

Click here for the review in full

The Dream Machine have released ‘Fort Perch Rock’ on New Music Friday – revisit Live4ever’s 4* review and stream the album right here.

Related news: