When you spend most of your time listening to music or watching live music you tend to get a bit complacent and it takes something pretty spectacular to make you stop in your tracks and sit up and listen and just say one word “Wow”.

From the first track I heard on Gil De Ray’s ‘Low Sun Rising’ album I knew I was captured hook line and sinker, the pulsating beats and breathy Bobby Gillespie esque breathy vocals on first track ‘Follow Me’ are as captivating as they are catchy. It’s no wonder that his previous carnations were called Black Magik Society, as he certainly has me under the spell with a track as epic as this.

Going from one track sounding like the dance euphoria of Primals at the Screamdelica height, then switching on ‘Little Heart’ to the Psychedelic sound of someone like the Brian Jonestown Massacre even within the first two tracks Gil is combining all of my favourite sounds of the past twenty years and delivering them to me in one intoxicating package.

The percussive yet melodic rhythm of ‘ Heavy Senses’ draws you in, and makes you wonder what this guy Gil is all about – he is a bit of an enigma but gloriousness of these tracks make you want to dig and find out more , and then the aural attack that is ‘Bad Motherfucker’ hits you like a punch in the face. Wow again, this track will soundtrack your life for the next few weeks, you won’t be able to get it out of your head and the groove it provides you with will pulse through your veins endlessly.

Pace is changed with the weird introduction of an accordion in the track ‘Dance Alone’ the oomp-pa-pa rhythm reminiscent of a German drinking song but the beautiful melody hiding the poignant tone to the lyrical content.

The My Bloody Valentine-esque guitar work on ‘I Walk Alone’ brings another dimension to the album and the deep, slow, deliberate vocal adding both atmosphere and tension.

Gil will have vast appeal to those of us who enveloped ourselves in early nineties indie – he is a bang up to date – if not future proof version of all your favourite bands such as Primals and MBV from that era.

Showing that it’s not just the electronic side of the music that he can bring to the table – the guitar work on ‘Get Ready’ is nothing short of sensationaland title track ‘Low Sun Rising’ is a psychedelic melodic chilled out track that just just find yourself floating through and then ‘Why Don’t you Listen’ is basically what Lennon would have done if he’d lived and remained cool. It’s a beautiful slow paced song that just entices you in and leaves you begging for more.

The album ends on a sombre note ‘Heart is a lonely Hunter’ is as heart wrenching and utterly despondent as the title suggests the intenseness hanging like the sword of Damocles throughout the whole track.

If you don’t treat yourself to a listen of this album you will surely be missing out, Gil de Ray will be a name that you will hear a lot more of in the future. Be ahead of the game, get in first and get a listen…then tell your friends. The future is here, the future is Gil.

Jackie Nutty