AWAKENING IMAGINATION

by Gil De Ray

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    GLORIOUS BLACK VINYL WITH ARTWORK BY GIL DE RAY

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1.
Every time i go to sleep I think about you next to me breathing softly. And i’m too scared to think about what happens when you leave here in the morning Cos it’s time time, is all we have You go to work you have to be some place that you don’t want to but it’s money. The constant threat of being in debt is killing time and that’s the thing we need more. And i don’t want to think about the time that we have wasted feeling sorry. Cos it’s time time, is all we have Beyond the pale it never fails to make me feel i’m edging close to something the recompense is something else but love is all that’s really worth the bother. And where we be is good for me but living here is truly undercover. Cos it’s time time, is all we have
2.
Love just lingers on when other emotions all become dust in the winds of time memories are blowing down the line Love kills the pain and the noise turns a bad day into joy love lingers on love lingers on Now my heroes are dead and gone but love lingers on love lingers on love lingers on love lingers on
3.
What happened back in ’65 when all our dreams were still alive caught in the web of others lies too young to heed your own advice The past is in shadow the present in fear the future’s a mystery like Mary Weiss’s tears. Like Mary Weiss’s tears. Remember walking in the sand Out on the street your hand in mine We danced together through the night under the blood moon as you liked The past is in shadow the present in fear the future’s a mystery like Mary Weiss’s tears. Like Mary Weiss’s tears. The past is in shadow the present in fear the future’s a mystery like Mary Weiss’s tears. Like Mary Weiss’s tears.
4.
TEARS 04:21
Tears keep falling blurring my eyes time is running out, there’s no respite. Look at the state we’re in? Endless misery. There’s no disguising this insecurity. If you don’t understand feeling this way i don’t expect you to care ‘bout anything i have to say. It’s a wicked world and it makes me sick inside tears keep falling and there’s nowhere to hide. Tears! My god. blood on the streets. Paid up politicians and messengers, liars and cheats. Blood libels everyone, so indiscrete. False truths and double talk on endless repeat. Everyone knows who’s side is wrong and everyone sees just what’s going on.
5.
I was somewhere south of nowhere bright blue skies dusty roads dogs were barking cats back arching almond trees and olive groves. Down the rambla shale was blowing bamboo forest river flowing in the haze of midday sunlight on my knees there is no respite only fools go out like this only fools go out like this only fools i was past the point of caring but my future cast a doubt. Where i’m going? where i came from, back to something steeped in sorrow. I was born in Rottenrow and like the song “I wasn’t born to follow” against my will, observe the law i must return to where my roots grow only fools go out like this only fools go out like this only fools back to the darkness, back to the hate back to the rain, the endless rain back to the darkness, back to the hate back to the rain, the endless rain only fools go out like this only fools go out like this only fools
6.
Its a better pill and against my will i gotta make my way back to loathe island where the sun don’t shine it’s a waste of time trying to make any sense loathe island and the common refrain that you can’t explain is leave if you really don’t like it but you can’t anymore since they closed the door it’s a prison back in loathe island loathe island loathe island It’s a fire in the madhouse at the end of time back in loathe island just turning tricks is a permanent fix on crack in in loathe island but the facts are the facts and there’s no turning back on a genocide loathe island guess there’s no surprise that the government lies it’s a death cult empire in loathe island loathe island loathe island
7.
There is a rose I don’t know it’s name where it grows no other flowers remain It’s scent is sweet no thorns by it’s side and it stands all alone by the dry riverside Fiesta is done nothing remains the wine is all drunk the plates are taken away the ghosts of Spain are everywhere and everyone knows but silence prevails There is a rose i don’t know it’s name where it grows no other flowers remain the ghosts of Spain are everywhere i don’t know it’s name i don’t know it’s name The ghosts of Spain are everywhere and everyone knows the silence still prevails Fiesta is done the wine is all drunk the ghosts of Spain
8.
Show me double of you light beams in through your eyes in your presence i feel entranced and mesmerised the cosmic dreams i share with you are of our love entwined the boundaries between us remain still undefined. Now show me double of you the inner self you hide lost in the infinite of space and time. The trouble you endured i want to understand. The hardest things to overcome exists inside your mind. Please believe my pure intentions I show you double of me the darkness and the light the conflicts I try my best not to indulge but might. The anger I inherited is deep inside the hardest thing to overcome is something i’ve denied. Please believe my true intention Please believe my pure intentions Please believe my true intentions
9.
Forever We will all be better when our minds are quantum And finally we will transcend the frailty of mortal men. Dream in binary, singularity. To be immortal now forever. We might all be better dead. Our memories lost instead. Souls transcending the stars like before the mystery that nobody knows. Analogue tragedy aint what it seems to be. To be immortal now together. We might all be better then.
10.
When you were young did you dream you’d become what you are now? Nothing more or less safe to say you tried your best. Did you ever wonder why things that passed you by weren’t to be, couldn’t be for you. Did you ever wonder why things that made you cry didn’t desert you? When you were young did you dream you’d become what you are now? Nothing more or less safe to say you tried your best. We can never be free, tethered to our destiny, bound by our fate we can’t escape our lot. When you were young did you dream you’d become what you are now? Nothing more or less safe to say you tried your best.

about

"Imagine an album that plays like the soundtrack to the movie of your life - this is mine." Gil De Ray

Recorded in a house in a small Spanish village high in the Alpujarra mountains. The Sierra Nevada looming to the West and the rambling desert scape where Sergie Leone's infamous westerns were filmed to the East. Living here proved to be fertile ground for my songwriting.
This was the last of three albums i recorded in the year I spent there.
And probably the best album I've ever made.
The sun and the mountain air all breathed into me.
My intention was to capture it, all of it. The influences i carried through my life and the love i felt for my surroundings. All wrapped together in one heart felt message. Pure imagination.

I'm not ashamed that I wear my influences proudly. The Psychedelic sounds of the 60's, Exotica, Lysergic Soul, the Wall of Sound. It's all present, mashed through a 90's production filter.

The songs were written and recorded in a two week period prior to my exit in June 2024.

I then did some additional production and over-dubs on my return to Scotland.

Everything was then passed to my good friend MIke Hlady over in Boston, USA. He did some additional production, playing drums, scratching and mixed the whole record at his Tower Recording Studio in the Summer of 2025.

And here you have it. My ode to life, love and endurance. From Spain to Scotland and the USA.

credits

released February 6, 2026

ALL SONGS WERE WRITTEN & RECORDED BY GIL GILROY AT
BOHEMIAN EXODUS, SPAIN, JUNE 2024 AND
MOTHERLODE STUDIO, GLASGOW, SCOTLAND, 2024 - 2025

DRUMS, SCRATCHING & ALL ADDITIONAL PRODUCTION BY MICHAEL HLADY
AT TOWER PRODUCTION & RECORDING, BOSTON, U.S.A
MIXED & ENGINEERED BY MICHAEL HLADY

I WOULD LIKE TO THANK MIKE FOR SWEATING ON THIS ALBUM AND MAKING SURE IT SOUNDED AS DOPE AS IT DOES - YOU'RE THE BEST!

AND SPECIAL THANKS TO KIRSTY ALLISON FOR ENCOURAGING THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE AND MAKING IT HAPPEN.

AND LASTLY A SPECIAL THANKS TO MY MOTHER, ANN GILROY WHO HAS BEEN MY BIGGEST FAN SINCE I FIRST STARTED PLAYING THE DRUMS IN MY BEDROOM.

I WOULD LIKE TO DEDICATE THIS ALBUM TO MY FATHER,
FRANCIS JOHN GILROY WHO PASSED AWAY IN APRIL 2025.
HE WAS THE MAN WHO TOLD ME TO NEVER STOP BELIEVING AND HIS SPIRIT LIVES ON IN THESE SONGS AND THROUGH ME FOR AS LONG AS I BREATHE.

LOVE AND PEACE

GIL

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Gil De Ray Glasgow, UK

Trying to make sense of the world and documenting the whole crazy experience, making music, videos, painting and writing.

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