THE SAND RAYS

A Mysterious Disc

3" CDR CEIL032

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(youtube)

VITAL WEEKLY

The mystery disc is not something I particularly enjoy. Especially if there is no information at all, but in this case there is a piece of paper, which spells out the name of the band and the title - listed above and not much else. Maybe no surprise, following a trio of discs by The Sand Rays, Ray Sands and Sandray - all thinly disguised the same side of the coin. There is a difference here with the previous lot, which is that here we have just one long piece of twenty minutes and this piece is not intended for 7", as the previous ones were. It is perhaps also less playful than the previous releases, with much of this music being very dark. We are not kept in the loop as to what kinds of sources were used here, but this is most likely all to do with samples and lots of sound effects. Just what is sampled we don't know, but the first half is filled with some gorgeous drone material, like a giant wave of water, slowly moving. An anchor is picked up by the sonar from afar and then, after a full stop, the sunken vessel comes closer to the microphone and hear some more of the sounds aboard. There are all sorts of debris passing by and there is mild overload; then we swirl into the ship's ballroom (think Titanic) and the metal clanging become a small dance piece with industrial rhythms to end with a small coda. From the current wave of material from this imprint, I thought the mysterious one was the best.
-Frans de Waard