Preaching for the Gangwar

Last night I went out all the way to St-Niklaas to see James Ray's Gangwar live. Not very many people know of him these days, and even less turned up, sadly.

As far as I'm aware James Ray gathered most of his fame through his work with The Sisterhood, Andrew Eldritch's one of spin-off after he split up with the guys that were to form the Mission.

James Ray did an amazing job on that record, covering quite some of the vocals. But then - the Sisterhood was a one of after all - he went on his own way, with his James Ray and the Performance outfit bringing us storming anthems like Mexico Sundown Blues, Edie Sedgwick, Texas and Mountain Voices on the record A New Kind Of Assassin. This material was quite similar to what he did with the Sisterhood, though.

After that, he went even more his own way, bringing us more aggressive tunes on Dios Esta De Nuestro Lado. This album featured another collection songs, like Rev Rev Lowrider and Hardwar.


On the next album, Third Generation, James went deeper into the Techno direction. Again, he manages to astonish me with tracks that are incredibly good both lyricwise as musicwise. A couple of highlights of this album are Cobalt Blue and title track Third Generation.

The next band he formed (as far as I'm aware, obviously) was MK Ultra and went perhaps even a bit deeper into techno. He released This is This and Beluga Pop, both carrying even more fine tunes.

Then apparently he picked up Gangwar again and released Psychodalek, though I'm not quite familiar with that album. Last year he went into ambient with 4080peru (of which he released a double DVD) and he released another album with James Ray and the Longfolk, which was some sort of modern country, with fantastic guitar tunes.

But nowadays it appears James Ray wants to get the interest for the Gangwar up back again, and I am but thankful he plans to do this!

The gig I went to see yesterday was incredibly storming, a very fitting act, James backed by wonderful musicians, bringing great songs to the people. I quite understand the comment Melody Maker once made: His gigs are like discovering sex for the first time.

Whenever you get the chance to see him at work, grab it! And have a look at the tracks I linked to. They're sourced by Mr. Ray himself, who - as he once said - doesn't want your money, but wants your soul.

http://thejamesray.co.uk/