Vocalist/guitarist Ray Vale is no stranger to the musical business. Born in New Jersey and now resident in Austria, Ray is the veteran of some eleven albums, but his twelveth is the first under the Slow Burn Drifters moniker. It represents the turning of a page, the start of a new chapter, and with an intriguing mixture of indie, gothic rock, Americana and dream pop, Golden is exactly that. Featuring ten tracks that drip emotion, these songs have seemingly leapt from David Lynch celluloid, made three-dimensional by Ray Vale and Co., and will fill you head with acidic, cinematic visions.

Slow Burn Drifters is a pretty apt name for this project; judging by the quiet storm that heralds the arrival of opening track ‘The Wind’, this outfit are in no great hurry. Piano notes hang and glisten like icicles in winter sun and appear stark against a blank canvas.However, in line with the band’s name, layers of sound are added, almost imperceptibly, and ‘The Wind’ soon becomes a rich tapestry that’s woven from different fabric and ululates like a flag on a mast. Due to the song’s slow build, ‘The Wind’ slowly subsumes us in sound and before we realise it we are totally submerged in Slow Burn Drifters’ world. But it’s Ray’s vocals that are the thread that run throughout; they are oak-aged and weathered, and bear more than a passing resemblance to Neil Diamond and add a touch of familiarity to proceedings by being delivered in a confessional tone.

Much of Golden has an otherworldly quality, as if emanating from another dimension, and a prime example would be ‘Forever New’. That’s partly due to the layered nature of this album; ‘Forever New’ has an insanely catchy guitar line with which to hook the listener, it is the musical equivalent to a beckoning finger at a haunted carnival, yet at any moment you feel as if you could peel back the thin veil that separates this world from the next. Aided by a rich, lustrous production, this album glows like fresh engine oil and, as if a coin dropped in treacle, operates in it own time frame. Each song is a mini novella that has been scored for the big screen and Slow Burn Drifters are the ultimate directors, drawing our attention to specific parts through changes in tempo and shifts in motion.

There’s an evocative nature to this album, think latter-day Talk Talk and you’d have something approaching the soundscapes contained in Golden. ‘Everyone But You’ conjures images of a wide open vistas with yellow sand cooling beneath a bruised coloured sky. However, sometimes we can over analyse music, and often best to just sit back and admire ‘I Still Live There’ for the great, great, great song that it is. There’s a refreshing old school quality to this record, from the focus on songwriting to the way the songs flow into each other. As such, Golden will reward being treated like an old school album (preferably on vinyl, with an “interval” as you flip the record over) to appreciate its circular nature and the themes that reappear.

Forever evolving, yet somehow remaining the same, Golden reaches a conclusion of sorts with final track ‘Under The Skin’ and with it a touch of sadness that the album comes to an end, but don’t worry, you’ll soon be hitting play again.

• Golden is released on 7th March 2025 (available here).
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Track List:

1. The Wind
2. Forever New
3. Ivy Whispers
4. Golden
5. Look Away
6. Everyone But You
7. I Still Live There
8. One Decision Away
9. Let It Ride
10. Under The Skin