Album review: Gary War - 'Newraytheonport' (Shdwply)

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7 / 10 Less Lisa Lisa than Nite Jewel, but without John Maus’ madman disco, Gary War is another Stateside analogue acolyte. Bearing a tape-recorder and nodding a head to late ’60s psychedelia (‘Bounce Four’), ‘New Raytheonport’ builds up lounge-lizard layers of eight-tracked melody, warping them before they finish their drinks. ‘Healthy Living’ comes straight from the Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti songbook – so muted that it makes John Cage’s ‘4’33’ sound like the Eroica Symphony, and with a bassline groove that’s looking to hustle. An ambitious cover of the Alan Parsons Project’s
‘Eye In The Sky’ pays off – somehow predating and supplanting the original, replacing prog with overheard chats. Reset your ears to ‘eavesdrop’, turn up the volume and enjoy.

Ailbhe Malone

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