Fuzz Meadows – Orange Sunshine
Release Date: 6th May 2022
Label: Copper Feast Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Stoner Rock, Post Rock, Shoegaze.
FFO: Naxatras, Colour Haze, Yawning Man.
Review By: Anthony Petitt
Hot on the heels of their 2020 debut EP, Australian Psych Rock trio Fuzz Meadows are set to release their debut album, Orange Sunshine. Don’t be alarmed by the albums five track, 40 minute runtime: there is a lot to dig into here. You Are The Void begins with trance-like guitar and drums which build into an uber-heavy and doomy march, which in turn soon gives way to a subdued bass interlude (a common thread throughout the album), leading into a new section almost reminiscent of Tool’s quieter moments. You can’t help but be drawn into the music in these moments. Fuzz Meadows paint the sonic canvas with ethereal guitars and impassioned, hard-hitting drums. There are no vocals to be found here, the record is entirely instrumental. The right decision, as the music speaks for itself in a way words simply cannot (though I will certainly do my best).
Reach is a good track, but the cathartic middle section with the feedbacking guitars can come off as slightly grating. On the title track, Orange Sunshine, we are met with swelling guitars that crescendo along with the drums and bass in an impactful build-up. With three songs compete, we pass the halfway mark of the albums runtime.
Death Echo is heavier and more riff-based, and the band sounds just as comfortable here as in their more Zen moments. The record feels like being a fly on the wall of a jam session one afternoon. It doesn’t feel choreographed or overthought, it sounds like three guys playing organically from the heart. Perhaps the Australian landscape has had an effect on Fuzz Meadows, similar to that of the musicians from the Palm Desert scene in faraway California. The musical influence of Desert Rock on Fuzz Meadows is undeniable, but the group does not feel derivative. The amazing cover art of Orange Sunshine sticks out as atypical of the genre as well, featuring an almost vaporwave aesthetic.
The finale is the fourteen-minute epic Benji, which orients toward the bands spacey side, with just a touch of earth-shakingly heavy. 
(4.5 / 5)
