Media Release:

The World Woke Up Without Me

New Album on Negative & Everlasting Records
Released April 21st 2003
REFTOSCD19

Venus Ray’s second album is the product of a tumultuous year for the band, culminating in the death of drummer Steve Smith half way through recording. The World Woke Up Without Me is a triumphant return - a glorious stew of electronically mutated garage rock, including the storming new single Hurricane.

Venus Ray’s first album, Chuck Berry vs. IBM, was a skewed masterpiece, acclaimed as “a magical debut album” by NME and a “bizarrely wonderful debut” by Q. Yet after its release, the band seemed to wilfully disappear off the radar. In fact they were locked in a labyrinthine struggle to complete hundreds of hours worth of new material. Then came the tragic death of Steve Smith, much-loved drummer and lynchpin of the group. After several months when further work seemed too painful, the surviving members reconvened to complete the tracks that became The World Woke Up Without Me. A huge stack of material that seemed inappropriate or too raw to complete remains in the vaults with no immediate plans for its release.

Venus Ray first emerged blinking from their London basement 3 years ago with the acclaimed Voyage To The Moon EP. The group was formed by singer/songwriter Diggory Kenrick and sound artist Barney Oliver, inventor of the electric wind guitar. On the new record, they’ve been joined by Tony Thewlis from garage rock legends The Scientists, who contributes vocals on 2 songs. For future recording and live work, multi-instrumentalist Robert Coyne, son of the maverick singer Kevin Coyne, has switched to drums, with other instruments being swapped freely between the rest of the band.

The coming year will find Venus Ray recording an album of fresh material, patenting two new audio inventions and embarking on some unusual side projects. One of these, a collaboration with a Russian cosmonaut on an album of songs he composed whilst orbiting earth, is currently in the hands of the Moscow mafia, but should see the light of day towards the end of the year.

The last 12 months have seen the band bounce back from tragedy with an outstanding and important record. The new songs fizz with offbeat charm and spontaneity, whilst dub pioneer Mark Lusardi (PiL’s Metal Box) manipulates the mixing desk to generate a further layer of performance. Drawing from a palette of fuzzed guitars, archaic synthesizers, homemade electronics, household percussion and malfunctioning tape echoes, the album stands as a positive tribute to a much loved musician, whose drums adorn the cover.