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ray - great strange dream
new 3 track single from the london based band
known simply as ray that’s very worthy of tracking down.
last year the band released their debut, daylight
in the darkroom, and while i enjoyed the old school guitar centric mellow
moods and late night atmospherics, i can’t deny that other than a couple of
cracking standout songs, the album lacked a certain degree of oomph factor.
so this time around, i am glad to report, the band have toughened
up their sound, and given the latest release a certain harder edge while still
retaining the love for warmth and sonic depth as the music is still in that
epic guitars with reach for the sky choruses league.
of course with the deep rich vocals the results
still hark back to the days of the house of love, with dashes
of crooner chris isaak but as mentioned before that’s a fine
template in my book, and one that certainly makes for a welcome change from
the excess of busker rock that’s filling the mainstream media.
lead track starts off with a fantastic swirling
guitar and just lays down its intention straight away before a cracking hook
brings the song right into classic guitar pop territory. wretchedest man is
sonically a lighter affair, but this is counterbalanced with some soul
searching lyrics that veer to some unsettling dark corner moods.
the single is rounded off with the twanged up
brilliance of the red veins in his eyes don’t lie, turn up the
volume on this as the production and interaction of the bass heavy twang
resonates throughout the 4 minutes 40 seconds, low neighbour friendly volumes
don’t do this track justice.
excellent stuff.
i have been told that the new single is a better
representation of the bands live sound which can only be a good thing for any
gig goers.
so, as a teaser for the new single, here’s a
previous b-side on which the band started to show their love for effect
pedals.
enjoy.
new single out 19/03
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