Ray album Daylight in the Darkroom, along with new single Great Strange Dream, is given a great review by Jack Rabid in the new edition of US magazine The Big Takeover.
(Fall 07 issue # 61)

“Like a more melodic ‘The National’, with insane potential ... I think Ray could maybe forge a classic”Jack Rabid, The Big Takeover

Daylight in the Darkroom out now on Pito Records

Please scroll down for LP reviews.

Album recommended by John Richards of KEXP Seattle in the March edition of
US magazine PASTE as one of his top 5 current new releases!

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Brand new single Great Strange Dream also out now.

Click here to see single reviews

Great Strange Dream is backed with two other new tunes – Wretchedest Man and The Red Veins In His Eyes Don't Lie.

All songs are new tracks not on 2006 LP Daylight in the Darkroom.

For press release and further info please see PRESS

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Daylight in the Darkroom:
UK Album Press:

7th July 2006
ntlworld.com - Aug 06

Maverick, Issue 49 - August 2006

ALBUMS - MAY 2006
RENEWS WHAT IS NEW
Ray "Daylight In Darkroom" (Pito Records)
For people who dream in black and black while slumped in bars where the wood is as black as a closed heart. That the soundtrack for such bleakness is so lush is a juxtaposition and a half, a treat, a smooth ride through the darker corners of the pysche. But this is no fey, frilly-sleeved excuse for a band, their black is shot through with real fire, sparking guitars, sliding guitars, steel guitars, bluesy guitars, country weeping guitars and it's backed with a real man's rhythmn section and it's voiced by a man who has a grain running through his throat. Again, it's fair and true to say that Ray and "Daylight In The Darkroom" are adult oriented rock and again, there's no link to big-haired eedjits with an aor tag, what I mean by that is that this is a band and an album that's as unlikely to be loved by a fourteen year old as it is to be loved by anyone who loves real music and who has dispensed with the bum-fluff bands. Ray are masters of the dark delight and they are here… www.raytheband.com
www.unpeeled.co.uk

See reviews of last single - Here is the Night (taken from Daylight in the Darkroom and released 27th Nov '06) - at:
msn.co.uk / pennyblackmusic.com / musicomh.com / losingtoday.com / hard-wired.org.uk /
mapsmagazine.co.uk / & roomthirteen.com

German, Swedish & Danish album review links:
www.news.tele2internet.de
www.otakt.se
www.gaffa.dk
www.cineastentreff.de

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Press Release for Deep Blue Happy (out now):
www.piranha-pr.co.uk

(Please scroll down the page for the full reviews)

"Almost flawless…Ray's first-time touch is breathtaking"
Martin Aston, Q

"Guitar notes hang in the air. Words are weighted then dispersed in the ether…..but acutely present undercurrents of hostility, give the songs a serrated edge."
Dele Fadele, NME

"Loveliness galore for those lugubrious nights of the soul. A Ray of delight, if you will."
8/10 - Iain Moffat, Rock Sound

"We need bands like London foursome Ray more than ever……melancholy countrified pop has seldom felt so emotional and affecting."
4/5 - Charlie Ivens, The Fly

"Ray's ability to capture a mood of decaying splendour and spray it all around your room in way that would put the willies up Mr Sheen should ensure them a faithful following for years to come."
Johnny Black, backonthetracks.com

"Savour the cinematic expanse of the shimmering classic melodies, the aching melancholia of the lyrics and the rich brown and velveteen crooning vocals that make this a late winning bid for the albums of the year list."
Mike Davies, netrhythms.co.uk

"A sad-eyed, cinematic combination of understated beauty and melancholia"
MSN

"Fresh and inspirational. Nev's sense stirring vocals and Mark's aching guitar delivering a soundscape that's as bracing as a coastal walk on a cloudy day"
The Works

"……. a wondrous exercise in English melancholia….hear Nev Bradford sing the word "incredible" and miss a heart beat."
Time Out

"Sublimely melodic"
The Guardian

Metro, January 17th 2006

Maverick, Issue 43, February 2006

The Works, Issue 1, December 2005

Mojo, Issue 146, January 2006

Rock Sound, Issue 79, December 2005

NME 25/12/04 - Live Review

Here's a selection of some of the press from Ray's debut album "First Light".

Time Out
More genius from the label of the year: a gorgeous seven-song debut of deliciously English chamber rock; endearingly mannered, delicately anthemic and wielding a deft pop swing. There's a moodiness they'll no doubt grow out of, but hear Nev Bradford sing the word 'incredible' in the brief, chiming 'River Place' and miss a heartbeat. (DP)

Q
Debut mini-album by English guitar siblings.
After rediscovering the wired sound of '70s New York with The Strokes, Rough Trade are now, perhaps, anticipating an early-'80s indie renaissance in the spirit of Orange Juice and Aztec Camera. Ray - brothers Nev (vocals, acoustic guitar) and Mark Bradford (guitar) - actually have more in common with the MOR-indie of Wigan's late '80s / early '90s janglers The Railway Children. Though Ray show little danger of riveting personality crises, First Light is almost flawless. Nev Bradford has an airy, shimmering touch, but on Killing Time he's as melancholic as Morrissey. Mark, meanwhile, has Johnny Marr's gift for understatement. In Noel Gallagher parlance, they're the clinical Michael Owen of guitar pop, but Ray's first time-touch is breathtaking. ****
Martin Aston

The Times
There is no better time to unveil some English guitar classicists. Ray are a little precious and dainty in feel, with elements of chiming, early Eighties Britpop (Pale Fountains, Felt, the Smiths). They are fronted by a pair of brothers, though Nev (vocals, acoustic guitar) and Mark Bradford (guitar) display no sibling angst, just an irresistible brand of dreamy bucolism in the Nike Drake tradition (check out the titles such as Sun Song and River Place). Ray may not be the Strokes, but this seven song mini-album debut shows as much potential. ****