Dead Man Ray
REWIND
The band was founded in november 1996 after multi-discipline artist Rudy Trouvé met with singer Daan Stuyven at a party, recording their first demo "Chemical" a week after, and playing live a month later, joined by Elko Blijweert on guitar and Herman Houbrechts on drums. The typical band sound consisted of Rudy's experimental guitars, combined with Elko's virtuoso guitar and Daan's deep voice and more melodic guitar. No bass. A combination of unorthodox cut-up home recordings blended with Spector-like mixes and lyrical surrealism. The first album, "Berchem" joined by producer Wouter Van Belle on keyboards, enjoyed immediate critical succes, and in the years that followed they toured through france, switserland, england, holland and germany. some fine moments included a BBC John Peel session, a Rockpalast TV show, a trashy funny main stage act at the Dour festival during the world cup final in '98, and an endless string of club shows, which gave the band it's exquisite live reputation. Drummer Karel De Backer joined the band for the second album "Trap", based partly on a musical remake of a 1962 cult movie featuring country legend Bobbejaan Schoepen. A short EP, "Marginal" including 27 tracks followed a month later. Their third album "Cago" was recorded with audio hero Steve Albini in his Chicago studios in the winter of 2002. The first single enjoyed a videoclip by dutch animation artist Han Hoogerbrugge, and remixes by a.o. Colin Newman.
PAUSE
And then they needed a break. The break took 16 years. But these years were very fertile for all the band members, resulting in many collaborations and side projects, theatre and soundtrack writing, record productions, and a succesfull solo career for Daan.
FAST FORWARD
But now, dear friends of timeless indie weirdness, the band is completely back on track! With all of the 5 original band members on board. 22 years after their first jam, the sounds & ingredients are still very recognisable, as you can hear on their first release, the 4-track EP "EEN" including the first single "Out", the nerveous "Monochrome", the obstinate "The Ladder" and the waisted "Clear History". Released on a limited edition on 180gr silkscreened vinyl. Produced by the band itself, recorded at Daan's farm, and mixed by Wouter Van Belle and Stef Van Alsenoy. For the moment the band won't do any interviews, too busy finishing a total of 18 brand new tracks, but will get to that by the full album release, scheduled march 2019. And of course, the whole idea behind this all is to get back to the stage, were they belong, starting this spring & throughout the summer / autumn. Enjoy, before they take a next break :-)
