WATER MACHINE – God Park – LP – Blue Vinyl [JUN 20]

LP – Limited Edition Blue Vinyl.

Flooding out of Glasgow in 2022, Water Machine quickly gained a reputation for their weird andwonky art-punk, winning hearts with sing-along songs about dogs, struggling artists and the housingcrisis. Their ascendency has seen releases with Gold Mold Records and Upset the Rhythm, shows across the UK (with Shannon and the Clams and The Orielles), and a BBC Radio 6 Music livesession. They are now set to release their debut Lp God Park via FatCat Records.

The world of Water Machine is a swirling eddy of melodic bass lines and volatile guitar slidingbetween jazz chords and punk riffs, all the while narrated by sardonic social commentary and sillystories. Driving rhythms thumped out on a sparse kit with cowbell flourishes are reminiscent of BeatHappening and The Jesus and Mary Chain, while cherubic vocal and violin harmonies hint at countryand folk influences. A band with pop sensibilities and indignant punk urgency, these oddballs dartfrom sweet C86 to spiky post-punk, often within a single song.

God Park takes disparate influences and distils the disjointed into something new. Taking influencefrom everywhere – from LiLiPUT to The Pastels – the tunes are always on the verge of falling apart orbreaking down. Whether its the bubblegum pop of lead single Tiffany or the country-punk bait andswitch that is Hando, their frantic genre-hopping is always underpinned with anarchic joy.

In places, Water Machines songs do indeed echo hometown touchstones such as The Vaselines and thearty, pre-Ecstasy, Soup Dragons, plus the bands on Postcard Records. Similar to their predecessors thereare affectionate nods to pops past. Handclaps and harmonies hark back to the 60s. Organs grind likegarage nuggets. Motown gets mutated through Rickenbacker jangle. There are Tropicalia-like touches,
and bass-lines pay homage to Peter Hook. Everything on the album packs positive, punk energy. ThinkBuzzcocks, not The Pistols.

Water Machine is a very cool band – Henry Rollins

Theres a presumed effortlessness to Water Machines post-punk, but dont be fooled:they know what theyre doing – Maximum Rocknroll

Water Machine dont sound anything like The Smiths – Marc Riley

Tracklist:

01. Clouds
02. Thunder
03. Hot Real Estate
04. River
05. Dog Park
06. Jimmys Waltz
07. Water Machine
08. Tiffany
09. Junction
10. I Quit
11. Park Highs
12. Hando