Album review: CHRIS OUSEY – Dream Machine

Escape Music [Release date 22.04.16]

Chris Ousey has taken time out from fronting Snakecharmer to release his follow-up to his 2011 album ‘Rhyme & Reason’. He is joined by various guest musicians including fellow Snakecharmer Adam Wakeman, Tommy Denander and guitarist Chris Green. He is one of the UK’s finest melodic rock vocalists, up there with FM’s Steve Overland and certainly deserves more recognition in the wider rock music circles.

‘This Is The Life’ storms out of the blocks with a blast of hard rock, not unlike Snakecharmer. Next up, ‘Another Runaway’ harks back to his more melodic rock/AOR days fronting Virginia Wolf. This one is a glorious slab of classy sounding melodic rock.

Big choruses are aplenty on this album, including ‘War’ (loving the keys on this song) and ‘Tearing It All Down’ – this one reminded me of Slammer. ‘Moment Of Madness’ is saved by Chris’s vocals as it is a little hard rock by numbers. Mind you ‘Better Time To Come’ is another fast paced rocker and features an uplifting chorus. The riffs on this one combine nicely with the keys, a feature that is present in most of the album and good to see no one instrument dominating the mix.

Enjoyable melodic hard rock album and certainly one for fans of his previous and current bands. ***1/2

Review by Jason Ritchie

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Power Plays w/c 24 March 2025

HARRI LARKIN Too Close To The Sun (Robot Distro)
SANDNESS Not Your Dog (Rockshots Records)
DOCTOR BLACK Drag Me Down (indie)
COHEED AND CAMBRIA Goodbye Sunshine (Virgin Music Group)
LEONI JANE KENNEDY Closer (indie)
SMALL TOWN POLITICS Red Lights (indie)

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09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003 – 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003 – 2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003 – 2024 (Singer Songwriter)

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