The Strange Blue Dreams come from a parallel universe where music flash froze sometime between 1962 and 1965, and the Beatles never happened. They say: “The cinematic arrangements of these 5 Scotsmen combine Doo Wop, Bollywood and Spaghetti Western themes with Joe Meek’s reckless invention.” Add the wilder shores of Surf, French sounds of Jacque Brel and Johnny Hallyday, with careful study of the Nuggets album and you have a rough idea of the sound of Simple Machine. The fifties toy robot on the cover tells you where they live. They probably drive to gigs in a Commer van.
After a few listens this gets under your skin and it’s everything else that sounds weird. ‘A Good Day’ and ‘For My Sins’ are the songs to sample first. Although ‘A Space is Hard to Find’ is the best song here for me, it’s too normal to get a flavour of the album. If you can sit still to the Mariachi of ‘Wine and Circuses,’ then you may be beyond hope. The Doowop gospel of ‘Gold In the Mountain’ is another high point, but honestly, it’s all good. Ensure all your dreams are strange and blue they say on the CD sleeve, and who can argue with that. Exactly what you need to listen to as the world falls apart around us. Just brilliant fun.
It’s not often my daughter asks about the music that I play, but she heard this, and the CD promptly disappeared into her room and has been on repeat since then, even the dog is dancing…
Available now at Bandcamp…
Learn more about their world here
