Artist:
WRAY
Label:
COMMUNICATING VESSELS
Video:
“APACHERIA”
Director:
Steve Ashlee
Add Date:
June 24, 2014
Wray isn’t afraid to revel in repetition, churning (like butter) confident, seamless grooves firmly in the tradition of NEU!, Faust, or Can. Their shimmering, headphone-ready tones owe much to Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, and even The Cure, but without the crippling self-absorption of chillwave, dreampop, or whatever all the sad bastards are listening to this week. It’s music for an audience, for a rock show. It’s got a beat and you can dance to it. The band is Wray and the album is Wray and you can play it at a party and people will like it.
Wray is David Brown, Blake Wimberly, and David Swatzell. Though they are new, their involvement in the music community starts over a decade ago with such bands as Last Flight In, Comrade, Nightmare Waterfall, and a handful of other projects you might not have had the chance to see if “punk rock” just isn’t your scene. But this project is something you don’t want to miss. Their self-titled label release will drop July 15 on Communicating Vessels. It was recorded in their hometown of Birmingham, Alabama at Ol Elgante Studio. With mastermind engineer Daniel Farris (Man Or Astro-man?, St. Vincent, Polyphonic Spree, Verbena) at the helm, they managed to capture the atmospheric beauty that comes with every live show they play.
“Apacheria” is a soothing and ambient performance video that captures the band amongst a cornucopia of colorful bursts of strobes, vivid laser lights, and psychedelic projections. A soothing feeling of hallucination carries the video, and minor details like the vintage Danelectro bass, the cracked crash cymbal, and the Lucky Strike Bowling T-shirt add just the right amount of human element. Even though it feels like a trip through space and time, it’s all the more impressive to remember that this lush soundscape is the work of just three men.
Big props to Wray and the Communicating Vessels team for sharing this video with us and all of our cherished programmers. It’d be our distinct pleasure to see you supporting this video, so let us know what we can do to make that happen! For more information please e-mail info@HIPVideoPromo.com . You can also visit www.CommunicatingVessels.net/ and www.Facebook.com/WrayMusic/ for more info.
