The Cathode Ray

LINE UP (left to right):
PHIL BIGGS: GUITAR
DAVID MACK: DRUMS & PERCUSSION
JEREMY THOMS: VOCALS/GUITAR/KEYS
NEIL BALDWIN: BASS
STEVE FRASER: GUITAR

Stereogram Recordings are delighted to announce the return of The Cathode Ray with the release of “Heightened Senses” their long awaited third album on November 1st 2019, available on gatefold vinyl, CD, download and streaming formats. It is trailed by the single, also called “Heightened Senses”, which will be available as a video, download and stream from September 27th 2019.

Following on four and a half years from their last long player, the “Heightened Senses” album itself, as the name implies, finds the band’s musical and lyrical palette raised to new levels. Simultaneously more pop and progressive, direct and experimental, electronic and acoustic, the album’s nine tracks take the listener on a rich and varied sonic journey, while lyrically it concerns itself variously with themes of fantasy and reality, alienation and belonging, hopes and fears, doubts and certainties, optimism and mortality, the past, present and future.

Meanwhile, single “Heightened Senses” itself digs deeper into the more positive side of The Cathode Ray, previously hinted at on earlier singles such as “Mind” and “This Force Of Nature”. Simultaneously a simple ode to the joy of life and a love song, chief songwriter Jeremy Thoms sings of “living in the here and now” and how “this energy inside” gives him “heightened senses, intensified and true, magnified for you”, all set to an insanely catchy slice of skewed perfect pop which The Cathode Ray do so well. Think Portugal The Man meets The Strokes via Pharrell and OutKast.

It also includes previous single “Another World” which was another bold musical statement from the band, evoking nothing less than the glam balladry of Suede, Roxy Music or Be-Bop Deluxe, married to subliminal electronica.

A BRIEF HISTORY:

Originally  based  on a  loose concept of forging late seventies New York,  with late seventies Manchester, The Cathode Ray started life in 2006. Adding 60’s garage, soundtracks, glam rock, northern soul, disco and psyche to the palette, recording sessions ensued, with the band’s debut double ‘A’ sided single ‘What’s it all About?’/’Mind’ being hailed as Single of the Year by Radio Clyde DJ and Sunday Mail columnist Billy Sloan in his round up of 2006.

A second single, ‘Slipping Away’ was released in April 2009 and proclaimed Single of the Year (so far) by the esteemed journalist Paul Lester in an enthusiastic piece in The Guardian.

The band’s eponymous debut album came out in April 2012 through Stereogram Recordings and featured high in many end-of-year roundups. The single ‘Dispersal’ was Track of the Month in April 2012 on the influential Janice Forsyth Show on BBC Radio Scotland.

The Cathode Ray released their second album entitled “Infinite Variety” on Stereogram Recordings in April 2015. Accompanied by the singles ‘Resist’, ‘Buck The Trend’ and ‘This Force Of Nature’, it garlanded ecstatic praise from all corners of the music press and also faired well in the year end lists.

PRESS QUOTES:

“shockingly invigorating and fresh” – THE GUARDIAN

“the second album from Edinburgh’s Cathode Ray is a thing of natural beauty” – THE HERALD

“their sound is difficult to Resist” – DAILY RECORD

“quintessentially British art-pop” – THE SKINNY

“Jeremy Thoms’ bands do not disappoint” – THE SCOTSMAN

“spry debut from Scottish post punk veterans” – UNCUT

“a group who manage to do something original and different with each new release” – PENNY BLACK MUSIC

“an album of consistently inventive, invigorating and infectious tracks” – LOUDER THAN WAR

“quite breath-taking, The Cathode Ray tops the lot” – THE RINGMASTER REVIEW

“urgent, engaging – a band that effortlessly blends musical maturity with the fizz and buzz of prime guitar pop” – ISTHISMUSIC?

“an exhilarating roller-coaster ride through a multifaceted post-punk landscape.” – MANIC POP THRILLS

“an immense pleasure” – JAMMERZINE