Fuzz Meadows - Orange Sunshine

​Fuzz Meadows

Orange Sunshine
​Copper Feast Records; 2022

4.1 out of 5 - TOP ALBUM

By Matt Jensen

Fuzz Meadows is a three-piece psychedelic rock band from Melbourne, Australia. The band features members of other local favorites The Black Heart Death Cult, Silurian and Ninety Ninety Hate. They recently released Orange Sunshine which is their debut album.

They get going with “You Are The Void.” I don’t feel like a void but I’m happy to let them convince me otherwise. The song is very dynamic and there are a lot of different styles. I was hearing elements of post-rock, doom metal and other sub-genres of rock. The song begins with an atmospheric build of thunderous drums, guitar and bass. It takes about a minute for the band to lock in and rock with heavy distortion. They crush it and sound somewhere between Sunn O))) and a hard rock band. The band reaches a crescendo and goes into this section that at first sounds like math rock and then seamlessly transitions into post-rock. The talent is evident as they experiment in and out of 4/4. This is all a warm up for the next section where it sounds like the guitars are tearing from the seams. The band is explosive and got my attention.

“Reach” has a classic post-rock setup in the spirit of bands like Godspeed You! Black Emperor or Mogwai. This song is more of a slow burn. The guitars are atmospheric here. I was super impressed by the drumming which is a key element to the trajectory of the song. About halfway through we get more into drone metal again. It’s an interesting hybrid and the band Deafheaven came to mind as the song progressed. 

The title track “Orange Sunshine” is another one that takes its time to build. The first minute or so is dedicated to ephemeral guitar patterns  before the destructive slam of distortion from a neighboring guitar interjects. It’s fuzzy as hell and perhaps the song that sounds most like their name. The song builds and builds until there’s really no other place to go but down. It’s one intense crescendo. Sounds disappear and devolve to remnants of the lone guitar still standing after the carnage.

“Death Echo” gets down to business fast. This song is perhaps more conventional and hard rock infused at first and has Queens of the Stone Age type vibes. They do go into much more post-rock infused space as the song continues. It’s a roller coaster ride of a song. They go in and out and return to the initial riff. Killer. 

“Benji” is a fourteen-minute song. I could have written the whole review about this song. I’m not sure it’s my favorite but probably the centerpiece. On that note the song does take its time unraveling. The song meanders through an ominous valley of tones and color. Some of the changes come suddenly and with little warning. There are a couple different builds but once you get to around the five-minute mark the band is rocking out on a volcano bursting with magma. Their band explores a lot more territory on this song but I’ll leave you with some surprises. 

​The band crushes it. They lock in and load. The band also doesn't pigeonhole themselves. Although there were aspects of post-rock and other genres the band never tied themselves to one specific genre. I’d say this is one of the more memorable debuts I heard this year.

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