Girl Ray

HHH Earl Grey MOSHI MOSHI. CD/DL Impressive debut from north London trio, who formed in 2015, aged just 16. Their name is a play on the artist Man Ray; their sound, which they call oestrogen pop, is for the most part ’60s girl group meets C86. Touchstones, unsurprisingly then, include Carole King, both in lead singer Poppy Hankin’s innocent, uninhibited vocal artistry and the group’s composition skills. The 12 songs making up their first album, recorded over two weeks at Ramsgate’s Big Jelly studio with producer/friend/ touring guitarist Mike O’Malley, could be straight out of the Brill Building with their boy trouble subject matter. Another point of reference is Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci and it’s Girl Ray’s appropriation of their scherzo sensibility lifts the three-piece beyond pastiche, feeding songs such as Don’t Go Back At Ten and Where Am I Now with a musical strangeness that’s totally alluring. Lois Wilson