RAY OFF - I Am Not In The Racing Sky

Ray Off and his three year old son were staring at the clouds one day when the boy made a comment that became the idea behind and the title for Offs first large-scale band composition". Realised by a crack pick-up group in three weeks and performed to an unprepared gathering at Dunedins None Gallery space, the piece is a fog of harps and sheeps; a cello dissolving in tears to chanteuse Pamela Poppins heartening sirenic solfege. The 27 minute recording seemed a good centrepiece for a cd celebrating a year of "off" actions, and is bookended by two live improvisations. "First Ray" starts off sounding like Black Dice on Sunday morning, before giving way to a cellos conversation with a cliffs edge; "Chinese New Year" sticks one half-thought-out guitar riff into a pipette and attempts to build a ship in a bottle out of broken biscuits." - United Fairy Moons.