ALBUM REVIEW: Force Form Free – Dead Meadow
With their unique blend of dreamy psychedelic layers, heavy 70s-inspired blues riffs and the mythical crooning of vocalist Jason Simon, DEAD MEADOW have become heavyweights in the USA’s psychedelic scene. Their music extracts gold from the ores of 1960s psychedelics and 1970s heavy rock, melts it down and moulds it into a glittering array of exquisite musical jewellery. Utilising a plethora of Eastern influences, often darker in tone, alongside their dense, hypnotic layering, DEAD MEADOW’s music is therapeutic. Force Form Free is the band’s eighth album, which sees them continuing to venture down the long and winding paths of mesmeric psychedelia. With long instrumentals and sparse vocals, the band take you on a strange and wonderful journey through a myriad of sounds, melodies and atmospheres.
From the very first song of Force Form Free you’re sucked into a musical world that if it was a record player would have its own unique speed between 33rpm and 45rpm. This freely flowing album should also come with a warning sticker that exclaims how hypnotic it is; countless times you’ll find yourself zoning out, completely lost in the album’s gentle rhythms and delightful melodies. An interesting aspect of Force Form Free is how DEAD MEADOW have been unafraid to strip their sound back, offering up a fresh and contrasting body of work when compared to their last album, 2018’s The Nothing They Need. While elements of their signature heavy blues riffing, infused with a SABBATH-esque essence, are still there, DEAD MEADOW have boldly ventured into the more experimental, psychedelic side.
With this in mind, this newly acquired adventurous spirit has transcended the album; as each song unfurls itself like an illustrious Persian carpet, the unique patterns and colours effortlessly captivate and amaze you. Like the threads of this metaphorical carpet, each individual song on Force Form Free is tightly woven and stitched together with the greatest of care and attention to detail. With each listen through you notice the finer details in sound layers as rich textures with an air of intrigue capture the imagination, yet it is a wonderfully peaceful and therapeutic album. The racing thoughts that haunt your mind seem to fall quiet and you effortlessly wander into this strange yet comforting musical world.
Musically, Force Form Free doubles down on the darker Eastern musical influences that DEAD MEADOW have gradually incorporated into their sound over the years. The experimentation with the sitar, played by Steve Kille (bass), is more prominent. In turn this adds an interesting new texture to the band’s already otherworldly compositions. Guided and grounded by the fuzzy, warm guitars, there are many moments throughout this album where if left untethered you’d float away on the luscious and continually evolving synthesiser melodies and drones. DEAD MEADOW have definitely been more influenced by the psychedelic 1960s on this album and it comes complete with mind-bending explorations and lucid creative visions.
The album opens up with the most traditional sounding DEAD MEADOW song The Left Hand Path; with a fuzz-drenched riff and an infectiously hypnotic drum beat, you’re gradually drawn into this album, expecting it to be as dark and brooding as its cover. However, the band waste no time in introducing a complete curveball on the next track The Lure Of The Next Peak. It’s a song that sounds like you’re riding on a wobbling sheet of aluminium, and it completely contrasts the track before it. Chilled out and mesmeric, it is here that we see the band’s penchant for psychedelia become stronger. Valmont’s Pad is a combination of the two songs prior, bringing in chilled out psychedelic synths with 1970s rock guitars all shuffling along to a steady beat and deep bass groove.
To Let The Time Go By is a surprising acoustic track, with some blissful, melancholic vocals provided by Simon. The dreamy soundscape that this song lives in helps you explore some of your deep thoughts as the lead guitar, which is soaked in wah, mildly moves from ear to ear. The title track has a grittiness to it that reminds you of something trip hop legends MASSIVE ATTACK would create; it’s dark, moody and drenched in fuzz. Album closer Binah is eight minutes of pure relaxation with a grainy 8-bit gap soundtrack quality to it, as if you’re in a pixelated driving game rolling through the desert.
DEAD MEADOW have ventured into parts previously unknown to them on Force Form Free, moving through a plethora of genres and moods to capture a complexity of emotions that is hard to explain. This is truly an album for the deep thinking, astral-gazers among us that relish in peace and dusk’s deep contemplations.
Rating: 9/10
Force Form Free is set for release on December 9th via Blues Funeral Recordings.
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