“With a stronger melodic focus and a more cohesive sound, Legends of the Seven Golden Vampires have turned their latest album into a very good meeting point of psychedelic pop, dream pop and electronic experimentation.”
Legends of the Seven Golden Vampires (Hertfordshire band) are back with *The Pumphouse of Broken Dreams* (out 30th October 2026). That’s the follow-up to their 2024 debut *Psychedelic Soul & Trash Vol.3*. The new record is a more focused record in terms of its sound, but still very much in the same adventurous spirit that got them noticed in the first place. Their debut was a very free-form thing, jumping around from psychedelic rock through to funk, trip-hop and electronic. This time the various influences are much more in line with each other and the record has a far more distinct musical identity.
A big part of the change is the inclusion of Dutch vocalist Ilse Van Der Linden whose more melodic vocal approach gives the band’s psychedelic pop a real sense of direction and injects a new character into the songs. It’s not so much about the odd sounds any more as it is about melody and songwriting. The end result is an album that’s still very much in the experimental mode but is far more cohesive from start to finish. The tracklisting kicks off with “To Think, To Heal” and the album continues in that vein with “Flying”, “Come Home” and “Here I Am” all following on from it. The titles of those tracks point to themes of movement, coming home and personal expression. “Come Home” is one of the singles that were released in advance of the album (so were “Lost & Burnt”, “To Think, To Heal” and “BLEND”). Those are the tracks that give you a real flavour of the more melodic side of the record and the psychedelic pop that’s at its heart. The album also contains ‘Hopelessly Devoted To You’ (a title which is very much a pop reference), ‘Lost & Burnt’ and ‘In My Dreams’ further reinforcing the introspective mood, before ‘AIR’ and ‘BLEND’ bring it to a close. It’s a nine track record which in its entirety suggests an interest in the emotional side of things and in contrasting states of mind, all of which are very much accommodated by the band’s overall sound.
Two years in the making, The Pumphouse of Broken Dreams is an album that draws on a very wide range of artists indeed (Radiohead, Portishead, Orbital and Cyndi Lauper to name but a few). That breadth of reference is in no small part responsible for the band’s desire to blend together the alternative rock, the electronic and the accessible pop. They’re not simply going to rehash the eclecticism of their debut (Legends of the Seven Golden Vampires) so much as they’re attempting to find a balance between the various influences and to create a sound that is very much their own. The band already have a sizeable following. Psychedelic Soul & Trash Vol.3 got good reviews from the indie music press, amassed over 150k streams across the various digital platforms and racked up 7.4m TikTok plays. They’ve also got airplay on BBC Radio 6 Music, Radio X, Absolute Radio and a number of local and online stations. The Pumphouse of Broken Dreams is Legends of the Seven Golden Vampires building on that foundation without quite losing their experimental edge. Ilse Van Der Linden’s addition brings a much more melodic underpinning to the record and the band’s many disparate influences ensure the sound remains wide open and un-predictable. There’s also an acoustic tour of the UK in the pipeline to bring the new songs to life in a different way. Available on all streaming platforms as well as vinyl and CD, it’s a very confident step forward and a record that clearly shows the band evolving as they go while still embracing the potential of psychedelic pop.
English