The Machine: Drie

photo: Hans Stakelbeek

Psychedelic stonerrock with nerdy lyrics. Dutch trio The Machine digs deep on their third album Drie, writing a three-part about Russian rocket scientist and pioneer of the astronautic theory, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and calling the album closer track Jam no.Phi. It flows for nearly twenty minutes, without any inane noodling of self absorbed shoegazing.

Guitar player David Eering is into Hendrix and Steve Ray Vaughn, two giants of the use of wah-wah. He tries to bridge the gap between the rawness of Jimi and the smoother tone of one of his most zealous students. The power trio is choice line-up for psychedelic stonerrock, with the bass serving as a second lead instrument at times, and the drums cutting corners following their own course when they are giving half the change. David Eering come up with interesting runs on his bass, particularly during Paradox and Medulla, the latter a sonic attack on you lower abdomen. Drummer Davy Boogaard applies tasty fills and rolls during the meandering First Unique Prime, a spacey track a la Pink Floyd Meddle period.

The subject matter of their songs will be lost on most listeners, but the music can speak for itself. Which is a good thing really - the sparse vocals are delivered with a rather heavy Dutch accent.

The Machine:
Hans van Heemst: bass
David Eering: guitar, vocals
Davy Boogaard: drums