The Dream Machine launch third album with 'Flowers On The Razor Wire'
The Dream Machine announce third album for 2026 with New York via Berlin radio rock single…
FLOWERS ON THE RAZOR WIRE
“Catchy, toe-tapping, wistful, melodic and witty.” – Song Bar
“The Dream Machine are going to be big.” – Louder Than War
The Dream Machine – Flowers On The Razor Wire
From the band’s third album, Fort Perch Rock
Released Fri 27 February 2026 on Run On Records
NOVEMBER UK TOUR - FINAL TICKETS REMAINING
www.dreammachinehq.com
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Travelling casually through time as across borders, The Dream Machine return to announce their third album with their new single, Flowers On The Razor Wire, a Ramones-referencing, Berlin-written rush of radio-ready new wave rock. Following up two underground long-players with their most uncompromising and ambitious collection of songs yet, the five-strong band from the windswept Wirral peninsula announce that their new album, Fort Perch Rock, for release on Fri 27 February 2026 via Run On Records.
The reveal comes as the band sets out on a eight-date UK Tour, opening at Cardiff’s Clwb Ifor Bach on Fri 14 November and stopping at The Moth Club, London on Thu 20 November.
Having made their return with the release of the album’s title track last month, a wheeling and wailing sprint through Jim Hension-inspired, organ-fired MC5 rapid punk/psych, Flowers On The Razor Wire sees the band deliver an infectious brand of drivetime melody to introduce the follow up to 2024’s Small Time Monsters album. Pounding in on a slick of keys and climbing steadily to meet a gilt-finished chorus, easily mistaken for a Blondie heyday single, the band’s starting point was found in the pages of a mysterious second-hand comic.
Songwriter and lead vocalist, Zak McDonnell says: “’Flowers On The Razorwire’ was about a comic book I found in an antique shop. I was sitting with a guitar, and the lads were just shouting out lines and ideas from it. It wasn’t long before we realised it was some sort of erotic graphic novel. I was in a Ramones phase around this time, so we went to Berlin during the writing of this album, intending to make a pilgrimage back to The Ramones Museum that we’d visited years ago, only to find it was gone. It’s as inspired by The Ramones as The Strokes, Television and The Walkmen.”
Recorded and self-produced between studios on the Wirral and in Liverpool, The Dream Machine’s 12-track Fort Perch Rock album is set to be released on multiple formats, including digital, CD and special edition, coloured vinyl editions. A limited, band store-only butterfly effect vinyl version is to be released with a one-off, glow in the dark 7” EP of covers that pays tribute to the Motown girl group, The Shirelles.
Whilst echoes of the past resound throughout the band’s growing catalogue of songs, The Dream Machine are as quick to quote Dr Dre, Mac DeMarco, Blossoms and King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard amongst recent and current influences caught between the lines of their latest work. Rising above all the musical, film and literary references is the imposing edifice of Fort Perch Rock itself, a sea-facing, historic point of defence as the Irish Sea and the River Mersey meet. A chief landmark in their hometown of New Brighton, it’s the band’s chosen totem to the salty air, dropped ice creams and lost arcades of coastal life.
Following up not only Small Time Monsters, but the band’s celebrated 2023 debut album, Thank God! It’s The Dream Machine, the track listing for the Fort Perch Rock album is confirmed by the band as follows:
1. Fort Perch Rock
2. Flowers On The Razorwire
3. Things That Make Us Cry
4. Angel Heart
5. If I Could Be King
6. Duck Bone Fever
7. I Had A Friend
8. Joe
9. Julie On The Rocks
10. Night Owls
11. The First Bird
12. Best Days Of Our Lives
Repeatedly taking the long road to bring their idiosyncratic vision to the people, The Dream Machine have expanded the number of faithful followers by supporting The Coral, The Charlatans and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds amongst numerous, memorable trips around the UK. For the remainder of November, The Dream Machine, uniting McDonnell with Matt Gouldson (guitars), Jack Inchboard (bass), Harrison Marsden (Keyboards) and Isaac Salisbury (drums), take to the road to perform at the following venues:
Fri 14 November – Cardiff, Clwb Ifor Bach
Thu 20 November - London, The Moth Club
Fri 21 November - Norwich, Voodoo Daddy’s
Sat 22 November - Birkenhead, The Future Yard
Wed 26 November - Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
Thu 27 November - Glasgow, McChuills
Fri 28 November - Edinburgh, Sneaky Pete’s
Sat 29 November - North Shields, Three Tanners Bank
For ticket booking links and to sign up for future updates visit https://thedreammachine.os.fan
The Dream Machine is present on social media as follows:
https://www.instagram.com/dreammachinehq
https://www.facebook.com/DreamMachineHQ
https://www.tiktok.com/@dreammachinehq
https://x.com/DreamMachineHQ
