SATURDAY NOV 19, 2016
529 Presents:
Irrelevant Music Presents:
Ben Trickey (7" Release Show!)
Little Rituals (EP Release Show!)
Gemma Ray | SPURS
Ben Trickey (7" Release Show!)
Little Rituals (EP Release Show!)
During a lifetime, Little Rituals start forming. You may hold them in your heart, but cannot know them by name. Only by instinct do you know they exist; only by practice can you reconcile their role in your own existence. They await your conscious gaze to make their being sound. And until then, they are the quiet luminescence that first catches your eye each morning.
During a lifetime, Little Rituals start forming. You may hold them in your heart, but cannot know them by name. Only by instinct do you know they exist; only by practice can you reconcile their role in your own existence. They await your conscious gaze to make their being sound. And until then, they are the quiet luminescence that first catches your eye each morning.
Gemma Ray
In the literary sense of the word, an epic is much more than an exciting story. It requires highs and lows, obstacles and aid, and a steady, sizable growth in character over the course of some life-changing scenarios. So when British singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Gemma Ray announced her seventh studio album The Exodus Suite as a “52-minute odyssey of epic torch song psychedelia,” she was certainly setting fans and critics up with pretty big expectations. Broken up into two acts, The Exodus Suite undoubtedly plays out as an epic, but never manages to sound disjointed. Genre-bending but with a common gothic ambience throughout, Gemma Ray is equal parts story teller and musician as she skillfully intertwines a diverse collection of 12 independent chapters in the form of songs that stand strong individually, but intensify when put together.
It is not to say that Gemma Ray has ever been anything close to predictable. Her past work always had the same Nick Cave-inspired gothic tinge as shown on The Exodus Suite, but Ray truly comes into herself as never before. Highly indebted to bands from the Beach Boys to Sharon Van Etten, Ray does not reinvent anything, but does carve a distinct niche for herself that few other artists could fit into. The Exodus Suite is her most mature and mysterious work to date, and what’s more rewarding is how we see her grow even just within the album. Down but never defeated, Ray contemplates her defeats on songs such as “There Must Be More Than This” in a true gothic fashion, melding longing and angst with shadowy beauty. An undulating bass line is cut with dissonant guitars, juxtaposed with fluttering keys that set her sights on her potential rather than her uncertainties. The mood of the album changes constantly, from driving to introspective and everywhere in between. Even within individual songs such as “The Original One” and “We Are All Wandering,” Ray takes listeners through her moods and motions and supplies comfort and insight into her own ambiguities.
Recorded live with 8,000 Syrian refugees living underneath the studio in which The Exodus Suitewas recorded, Ray’s personal life becomes politicized, although not inherently so. There is a palpable bleakness around the album as a whole, but Ray’s soft and dreamy vocals cut right through the dark and let the light shine through. The Exodus Suite should be considered a hero’s adventure more than an odyssey as Ray leads us through her highs, lows and rebirth as if we are all on this journey alongside her.
In the literary sense of the word, an epic is much more than an exciting story. It requires highs and lows, obstacles and aid, and a steady, sizable growth in character over the course of some life-changing scenarios. So when British singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Gemma Ray announced her seventh studio album The Exodus Suite as a “52-minute odyssey of epic torch song psychedelia,” she was certainly setting fans and critics up with pretty big expectations. Broken up into two acts, The Exodus Suite undoubtedly plays out as an epic, but never manages to sound disjointed. Genre-bending but with a common gothic ambience throughout, Gemma Ray is equal parts story teller and musician as she skillfully intertwines a diverse collection of 12 independent chapters in the form of songs that stand strong individually, but intensify when put together.
It is not to say that Gemma Ray has ever been anything close to predictable. Her past work always had the same Nick Cave-inspired gothic tinge as shown on The Exodus Suite, but Ray truly comes into herself as never before. Highly indebted to bands from the Beach Boys to Sharon Van Etten, Ray does not reinvent anything, but does carve a distinct niche for herself that few other artists could fit into. The Exodus Suite is her most mature and mysterious work to date, and what’s more rewarding is how we see her grow even just within the album. Down but never defeated, Ray contemplates her defeats on songs such as “There Must Be More Than This” in a true gothic fashion, melding longing and angst with shadowy beauty. An undulating bass line is cut with dissonant guitars, juxtaposed with fluttering keys that set her sights on her potential rather than her uncertainties. The mood of the album changes constantly, from driving to introspective and everywhere in between. Even within individual songs such as “The Original One” and “We Are All Wandering,” Ray takes listeners through her moods and motions and supplies comfort and insight into her own ambiguities.
Recorded live with 8,000 Syrian refugees living underneath the studio in which The Exodus Suitewas recorded, Ray’s personal life becomes politicized, although not inherently so. There is a palpable bleakness around the album as a whole, but Ray’s soft and dreamy vocals cut right through the dark and let the light shine through. The Exodus Suite should be considered a hero’s adventure more than an odyssey as Ray leads us through her highs, lows and rebirth as if we are all on this journey alongside her.
SPURS
According to NPR, SPURS' Adam Arcuragi is "a Philly soul with the old school power of Van Morrison". A folk/soul troubadour who grew up listening to his grandparent’s collection of old country and gospel records, the songwriter cut his teeth in the Philadelphia music scene, releasing three full length albums and an EP, spawning a folk-soul-gospel sound hybrid that some like to call 'Death Gospel'…
As an award winning poet and playwright, the compelling and poignant lyrics on these first three records began to garner praise, or as All Music Guide states: “There is unbridled joy inherent in even the saddest of these songs, and unforgettable images in almost every verse”.
In late 2012, Arcuragi moved back to Georgia when family circumstances necessitated him to be present. Feeling as though he were trapped in a Faulkner novel, many hours were spent longing for the promise of freedom that comes from the wide-open desert landscapes of the American west. It was from this desire that the first SPURS songs began to take shape.
In late 2013, the turmoil settled in Georgia, and Arcuragi was able to move to Los Angeles. Here he found inspiration from the psychedelic Southwest deserts, and the sounds of Laurel Canyon in the 60's. He fused those elements into his already other-worldly liturgy, and thus was born SPURS, into the church of Death Gospel.
According to NPR, SPURS' Adam Arcuragi is "a Philly soul with the old school power of Van Morrison". A folk/soul troubadour who grew up listening to his grandparent’s collection of old country and gospel records, the songwriter cut his teeth in the Philadelphia music scene, releasing three full length albums and an EP, spawning a folk-soul-gospel sound hybrid that some like to call 'Death Gospel'…
As an award winning poet and playwright, the compelling and poignant lyrics on these first three records began to garner praise, or as All Music Guide states: “There is unbridled joy inherent in even the saddest of these songs, and unforgettable images in almost every verse”.
In late 2012, Arcuragi moved back to Georgia when family circumstances necessitated him to be present. Feeling as though he were trapped in a Faulkner novel, many hours were spent longing for the promise of freedom that comes from the wide-open desert landscapes of the American west. It was from this desire that the first SPURS songs began to take shape.
In late 2013, the turmoil settled in Georgia, and Arcuragi was able to move to Los Angeles. Here he found inspiration from the psychedelic Southwest deserts, and the sounds of Laurel Canyon in the 60's. He fused those elements into his already other-worldly liturgy, and thus was born SPURS, into the church of Death Gospel.