A strange machine indeed. Brummie doomsters Alunah have really taken to the wing on new album, Strange Machine, with varied but generally hugely enjoyable results.

This is the band, you’ll remember, that covered The Cure‘s untouchable A Forest a few years back on their excellent Solennial album; any notions that that nascent gothery might be still present in the band’s sound are well and truly quashed by the strident title track which opens proceeding, and by the time the band really hit their straps on the phantasmagorical Fade Into Fantasy, you get the sense that they are mining far deeper seams of inspiration than Robert Smith and his ilk…

In simple terms, Fade Into Fantasy is just that, a fantasia on seventies prog rock that fans of same are going to fall into a dead swoon over as soon as they come into contact with it’s serpentine charms. Imagine Uriah Heep locked in a light night exchange of music with Renaissance, multiply the progness of that scenario by one thousand and you’re still not even close to the patchouli-soaked majesty of it all…

However the track that follows, Broken Stone, a lurching piece of bucolic Englishness that rides in on the back of some superb low frequency work from Dan Burchmore, is a different kind of beast altogether, and it’s this ability to stop and switch on a musical dime that marks Alunah out as real contenders in their chosen field.

At this point it’s important to acknowledge the vocals of Siân Greenaway as the touchstone to Alunah’s musical elasticity; not many vocalists could handle the chirpy whimsy of tracks like Psychedelic Expressway one moment before launching into a pompous proto-metal anthem like Teaching Carnal Sins the next and come out unscathed, but Greenaway can, and does, handle anything the rest of the band cares to throw at her throughout Strange Machine’s entire duration.

This newish iteration of the band, rounded out by the superb guitar contributions of Matt Noble and lithe percussion from Jake Mason, demonstrate repeatedly on Strange Machine that they are in the sort of shape to make a big and sustained assault at the peak of their particular musical mountain. And I for one can’t wait to see just where that assault takes them next…

Strange Machine releases on April 15th.