If you're after a quick blast of facts and info on Gil De Ray then you'll either have to think again or attempt your own research. All we've been able to find out is that he's from the UK and that 'Infect The Culture' is his debut album. So, what's he all about? He's about DIY recordings, psychedelia, punk mixed with electronica, crude production, experimenting with sounds, using the odd sample and being thoroughly uncommercial in most ways; really he's taking '60's garage, '70s punk and modern noise-rock and firing them all onto tape through the barrel of a shotgun. All of which makes for an noisy, edgy, melodic, don't-give-a-shit album that's a targeted at people who don't care much for conventional pop. So that'll be you then.
With an opening track that's about as clean and tidy as this album gets, 'What You Want & What You Get' is a classic riff with half sung, half spoken vocals, beats nicked from an electronica demo and all fed through a basic punk production system. It's the start of an interesting record. 'Catholic Boy' is basically Primal Scream covering Bo Diddly, taking his famous beat and vocals that contain plenty of Bobby Gillespie-isms, including his patented "ah yeah!", but it's done on what sounds like budget equipment, adding a lo-fi element that neither artist have been particularly known for. It gets a whole lot noisier on the clattering garage racket that is 'I Gotta Know (Is Your Love Just Slipping Away)'.
A similar setting is used for 'If I Can't Have Your Love (Then I'll Take Your Hate)', perhaps the most disposable song included, but that's made up for in the screwed-up fuzz rock of 'Sick Living'. 'Amphetamine Psycho' sounds just like a song called 'Amphetamine Psycho' should do, so further description isn't really needed. 'Psychedelicized' is an interesting one, tapping into the musical jug psychedelia of 13th Floor Elevators'. A tricky sound to create but he almost gets it right, and in fact it's probably better for not being an exact copy anyway. Listening to the sampled speech at the start of 'Kill The Rich' you begin to think that perhaps that kind of cull will do much more for our country than farmers going out and shooting fucking badgers! (And for the record I grew up on a farm. With cattle.) This intense, scruffy and highly enjoyable album finishes with the scuzz-heavy grind of the title-track and leaves you wondering if burning down expensive recording studios might not be a bad idea either.
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