Slow Dawn – Into The Machine Haus
You may be forgiven for thinking you’ve heard it all before when first listening to Into The Machine Haus (its kosmische credentials obvious from name alone, its post-punk promiscuity revealing itself only on record), but what Slow Dawn actually do differently is to play all your favourites all at the same time. Theirs is consequently a maximal sound, Into The Machine Haus the Canadians’ label debut after a series of noisy self-releases, and it doesn’t hang about with its six tracks lasting just 22 minutes of targeted destruction.
Comprising guitarist Dan Druff of similarly styled Holy Cobras fame, Chris DiLauro on drums and dark abstract specialist Jesse Winchester on bass/synths, what follows is a breathless, snowballing procession of hard-hitting, experimental space-rock that still retains ear-catching quantities of rhythm and melody. The insistent tick of the kit and Winchester’s bass grooves offer a solid foundation, Druff’s doomy drawl weighing the listen down when it threatens to hit warp speed, out-of-control sax skronk and tremulous distortion ensuring Into The Machine Haus remains a wild ride.
Percussive precision glues these gloomy, fuzz-filled missives together, a slower tempo allowing acid-scrambled neck-popper “Gliding Things” to luxuriate as an undulating dirge so heavy as to come with its own gravitational pull, Druff’s vocals echoing from the beyond. In such solemn company, “Decompression” then closes out with a relatively joyous post-punk blossoming, but you have to dig for it under growling bass and howling vocals, Into The Machine Haus’s take-away tinnitus as reverential as it is punishing.
Best track: “Near Dark”
~Into The Machine Haus is out now via the collaborative efforts of Cardinal Fuzz and Centripetal Force Records.~