Hailing from the New South Wales Central Coast, The Fumes bring Kyuss and John Butler together in one groovy, detuned, fuzz-pedal heavy, slide guitarin’ corker of an album in ‘Sundance’.
After a bizarre 30 second intro track entitled ‘Fat’, the fuzz kicks off with ‘Who Do You Love’, a stompin’ barrage of guitars beefed up by Detroit based producer Jim Diamond.
‘The Letter’ is the first hint of the roots influence; with beardy front man Steve Merry showing off his chops with six strings and a slide.
‘High City Lights’ features vocals from the spectacularly talented Marihuzka Larenas-Esquivel, who has appeared in various projects including Ben Ely’s Radio 5. This track is the highlight of the record and one of the only moments where the band manages to get lost in their own sound, rather than so blatantly wearing their influences on their sleeve.
The album closes with the organ driven epic ‘Seven Year Itch’, which centres around the pretty blunt line “I don’t like you anymore, just let me be.” This song is bad news for whoever it was written about, but good news for anyone listening to the record. This corker is another highlight of the album and will leave you itching for more.
‘Sundancer’ is an awesome album. It is diverse and has a beefcake of a sound - no mean feat for a two piece - and is performed by two very talented musicians.
The band feels like a collage of its various influences although dirty fuzzy blues seems to be predominant, but they manage to make an album that is never boring and a much needed injection of goodness into the local scene in Australia.
