Rayographs - Francis

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release

4...according to our Brian on Fri 17 Jul, 2009.

And former SOTW gobbling femmes The Rayographs have their sophomore 7" out. Once again I'm forced to use the shimmering word as that's the setting their guitar appears to like most. It shimmers away and then explodes in a slightly raw surf/spaghetti western/shoegazey way does 'Francis' and you come to realise this band have a rather distinctive sound nailed already. The drums get whacked enthusiastically in some rolling new wave fashion and the twin pronged vocals blur the line between hypnotic & indecipherable before entering into repeated coda territory. They actually sound like a quality 4AD band crossed with a rawer Drugstore. I like it when the lead vocalist does that quiet intoning on the eerie flip side 'Yellow Hair', it's blatant PJ Harvey-isms being of the authentic and thrilling end of the spectrum. Bizzy B Lady also notes there's a splinter of late period Jenny Hoyston (Erase Errata) apparent in the vocals too but these lasses have their own sinister voodoo agenda happening and I bloody love it! Roll on more where this came from...Ltd 7" only.

The Rayographs are Astrud Steehouder, Jessamine Teirney and Amy Hurst and are quite possibly the most exciting new band you’ll hear this year. Returning with their second outing from Everyone We Know they’re back with more limited goodness in the shape of two new Nick Cave/Life Without Buildings via The Breeders in a late night blues bar style songs that are far beyond the sum of their influences. Lead track Francis takes a 1960s-esque garage riff and pins it to the floor with thundering drums and bass to create a riotous three and half minutes that’ll have Astrud’s distinctive vocals looping round your head for days with no chance of leaving.
Yellow Hair starts off more subdued than its predecessor with a wiry guitar riff that echoes and twists with the softly sung vocals before upping the pace with drums that feel like they’re about to break through the bottom of your stereo and land in your lap! Awesome!

Overall a pretty great package if we don’t say so ourselves! As always vinyl comes in a hand numbered sleeve and is limited to 500 copies!

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