British combo Wax Machine occupy a particularly kaleidoscopic frontage on the perpetual river of psychedelic rock. Led by Brazilian-born, Italian-reared singer/guitarist Lau Ro, the group materialized in the indie underground of Brighton, England in 2018 with a pair of blissfully out-there EPs that were deeply rooted in the transcendental sounds of vintage psychedelia with an emphasis on the genre's exploratory jazz, folk, and Tropicalia sides. After securing a roster spot with the psych-specialty label Beyond Beyond Is Beyond Records, Ro and bandmates Isobel Jones (vocals, flute), Woody Green (bass), and Toma Sapir (drums) found a complementary collaborator in Japanese producer Go Kurosawa, whose band Kikagaku Moyo occupies a similar sonic space. The resulting album, Wax Machine's first full-length effort, is more or less a continued exploration of the territory traversed on their two introductory EPs. Warmly captured and resplendent with the appropriate affectations of the group's chosen musical period (i.e. the mind-expanding drug culture of the late '60s), Earthsong of Silence faithfully hits all the right spots. The dueling freak-folk vocals of Ro and Jones, dipping in and out of harmony, calling and responding to each other, gives the band a communal voice, especially on tracks like "Shade" and "Truth," whose earthy grooves are made lighter by Jones' celestial flute. The rhythm section is nimble, and Ro's guitar-playing is capable, even enjoyable, but the overall effect of the album comes across as more of a re-creation of a favorite genre than an original work. It's hard to hear any personality in Wax Machine's obedience to an ethos that, at first blush, was an immediate and fresh form of self-expression, not a hard template to be re-executed a half-century later. Moreover, there is a lack of imagination in many of the band's rote two-chord improvisations and lyrical repetitions so that by the time they arrive at the undeniably goofy "Time Machine," Earthsong of Silence is more a psych parody than a tribute.