Review: Since releasing her much admired debut album 19 Masters in 2022 - an impossible to pigeonhole affair that saw the Canadian-Japanese bassist-turned-solo artist explore her abstract and experimental influences - Saya Gray has kept fans content via a series of low-key (but undeniably interesting) EPs. Here she finally delivers full-length number two, the simply titled Saya, whose genesis can be traced back to a solo trip across Japan accompanied by her acoustic guitar. Musically, it is rooted in folk - bluesy finger-picking motifs, strummed chords and her sweet vocals are an almost ever-present - but it's like no folk album you'll have heard before, with Gray throwing in everything from Tricky style moody trip-hop beats, haunting pedal steel, dark electronics and nods to country, Americana, r&b and atmospheric electronica.
… Read more