Birmingham, Alabama’s Wray deliver a wonderful account of psychedelic dreampop genuineness, and prepare for the release of their forthcoming dual record Stream of Youth / Blank World, scheduled to arrive June 5th 2020 through Earth Libraries.
All examples off the coming full length thus far indicate a diversified and overall intelligent record of philosophical properties, existential qualities, and elements from different, yet, adjacent styles, altogether translating into an intriguing release.
"A lot of people hang on to the idea that we can have some kind of utopia some day, that human beings will evolve to a pure state. But if the human race could start over, would things look any different?" says Wray bassist and vocalist, David Brown.
Introduced with the lead single, Nebulous, through its seven-minute krautrock-leaning synthpop, the album showed its heady effect early on. The video which featured the album's opening pieces, the dreampop refinement and escapism of Jogging, and the more shapeless ambiance of Neon Forming, corresponds accurately to the band's DIY ethos, as it's also worth mentioning that Wray self-produced the coming album on their own terms and pace at the home studio of label Communicating Vessels in the Birmingham suburb of Woodlawn.
Latest single, Good Time, is more of slow burning psych slowcore number that further confirms the dual LP's multifariousness.
"Good Time was written in the studio during a recording session. Starting with just bass and guitar, we unearthed another cyclical riff and rode it out. The heavily gated percussion and vocals were added later. Finally, we washed the track in ethereal voice synth. This song turned out shy and sincere."
Although a tad too knotty to categorize Stream of Youth / Blank World ultimately exhibits the band's crystal clear vision for it.
"When we started this project, it was just about exploring repetition—which is something that runs throughout Krautrock, techno, and even ambient music," Brown comments on the album. "One of us would go into the studio for a few days to work out and write synth parts, percussion lines, or guitar layers, and we had a lot of room to let it all breathe."
Wray are David Brown (vocals, bass), Blake Wimberly (drums) and David Swtzell (vocals, guitar).
Cover art by Roy Burns III / Painting by Boris Vallejo
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