Shoegaze idols RAY continue to blend noisy, blustering rock with pop, IDM, hardcore and more on Green, the follow-up to 2020’s blistering Pink. But this isn’t just a continuation of that work – it’s also more exploratory, better written and a bit more polished. RAY’s second full-length doesn’t just boast powerful and raucous shoegaze tunes but it also varies wildly and pushes beyond shoegaze’s conventions, from huge, shaking, cinematic opener “Gyakkou” and pummelling rush of “Gravity” to the sparkling synthpop of “Rusty Days” and the scuttling, pattering beats of “17”. As to how RAY achieve all this? Well, that bit’s actually rather simple. Some of Japanese shoegaze and noise pop’s most talented names feature on Green, like Ichiro Yoshida (Untouchable World, Zazen Boys), Azusa Suga (For Tracy Hyde), Shinda Bokuno Ishikawa (My Dead Girlfriend) and Tomoya Matsuura (monocism). With that lot on board, Green would struggle to fail – and it doesn’t.

Listen to “17” below.