A Noir Siren, A Dark Romance

New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Shore Fire Media) - Gemma Ray conjures a dark and sensuous world on her US debut, 'Lights Out, Zoltar!' (October 26, Bronzerat Records). Already something of a darling of the foreign press (see above), Ray is set to bring her richly emotional, '50s-inspired music to America this fall. Her fans already include Jimmy Page and Nick Cave' and The Bad Seeds. Anyone with a similar love of expansive emotions, sweeping orchestration, richly reverberating sounds, and a little bit of unease should get very excited.

Musically, Ray's songs recall early rock and roll through the lens of a late-night horror film. Take the album's opener, "100 MPH (In Second Gear)"; it's a riot of hollow body guitars (played with a kitchen knife), rolling cymbals, toy pianos, and ghostly female voices. While several of the songs of the album follow this template ("1952", "Goody Hoo", and a few more), there are other sides to Ray. "Tough Love" is a finger snapping track about, well, being tough in relationships; "You were a white dove/I wore a boxing glove," she sings, as a music-box style xylophones strike in the background.

The songs on 'Lights Out, Zoltar!', written by Ray (who also produced most every sound therein) , deal with life on the emotional margins. Its characters are stuck in endless metaphorical deserts ("No Water"); they lose their souls to dark forces ("Death Roll"); they're too sick to go out ("So Do I"); they lurk in the shadows, drown, yearn, sneak, and careen out of control.

"I try to whip up my human condition into a three-minute tornado," Ray told UK newspaper The Sun last year. "so it's definitely emotional, hopefully emotive. The vibe of it is futuristic vs. Fifties and Sixties' mini-melodramas."