While citing an eclectic mix of artists including Nirvana, Iron Maiden, Muse and The Cult as influences, Primitive Machine’s music shows that they’re comfortable in developing their own individual style, a fact which is obvious upon encountering their fledgling catalogue. With grungy guitar and bass tones and crashing cymbals, here is a band who are not afraid to turn everything up to eleven.
Dublin-based Primitive Machine have been making strides in the unsigned Irish music scene with their brand of prog-influenced alternative rock, led by emphatic guitar solos and powerful lead vocals. Fronted by singer, Tracy Moore, the four-piece’s music so far shows maturity and individuality.
With four singles released online, the band are in the process of recording their debut album, penned in for a summer 2019 unveiling. FreeFall, the most recent of their four tracks so far, was released in late 2018 and is unquestionably the most ambitious single yet. FreeFall builds slowly, layering intensity using guitar riffs and Moore’s characteristic lead vocals. It sounds like a lazy comparison but there’s something quite similar to The Cranberries’ Dolores O’Riordan in her voice. It’s strong and throaty but has some underlying vulnerability.
Though FreeFall does have a conventional structure, it hides this deftly by varying how each repeated section sounds. The instrumental after the second chorus manages to integrate four different (and excellent) guitar solos without the section feeling like it goes on for too long and some nice production allows each solo to sound unique. Following this, a war-march-like chant brings in a breakdown section which again, is well implemented.
Without a doubt, FreeFall is Primitive Machine’s most impressive release so far. While their three other tracks so far do show promise, they’re not as well-textured musically and lack some of the intensity that FreeFall has in buckets.
Despite this, Primitive Machine’s releases to date indicate that here are a band with some promise. With a little polish, they could shine.
