Dean McPhee is a solo electric guitarist who records his meditative and hypnotic instrumental music at his home in Bradford, West Yorkshire. He plays a Fender Telecaster through a valve amp, an 18” subwoofer and an array of effects (including a kick drum pedal), and he is influenced by Dub, Modal Jazz, British Folk, Underground Electronic Music and Psychedelic Rock. A self-taught musician with a fluid, understated technique and an inventive approach to the instrument, his music has received acclaim for it’s melodic, dreamlike and trance-inducing qualities and deep sense of space.

Dean is a regular contributor to the esoteric record label/collective Folklore Tapes and his latest album “Astral Gold” was released earlier this year on his own Bass Ritual label. His fifth album to date, “Astral Gold” has been very well received critically with positive reviews and radio play from a wide range of sources, including a full page review in Uncut Magazine and an appearance on their cover CD. Dean also contributed a track to the 2023 Michael Chapman tribute album “I Thought I Told You – A Yorkshire Tribute to Michael Chapman” on the Tompkins Square label, as well as recent appearances on the acclaimed Wicker Man tribute album “Ballads of Seduction, Fertility and Ritual Slaughter” (Wasistdas) and “A Web of Braided Willow – The Folklore of the Wickerman” (Folklore Tapes).

Since his first release back in 2009 Dean has played many live gigs across the UK and Europe, including acting as tour support for Thurston Moore and Michael Chapman, and opening for artists such as Wolf People, Acid Mothers Temple, The Magic Band, Meg Baird, Emeralds, Michael Hurley, Sharon Van Etten and many more.

Press for Astral Gold

“Artful, fluid psychedelic guitar excursions…The Bradford guitarist’s fifth album takes Roy Montgomery and Manuel Göttsching on a trip deep into the old weird Yorkshire” The Quietus

“Anchored by the thudding pulse generated by a kick drum, the atmospheric, reverb-laden proceedings often channel the slow motion echo chamber ethos of dub reggae or the nocturnal inner space explorations of more cerebral electronic music – 8/10″ Loud & Quiet Magazine

“Alien presences, spaced-out minimalism and celestial English guitar…an album tied together by the haunted and the alien, and rich with a welcoming abstraction – 8/10″ Uncut Magazine

“Achieves a sort of elegantly blackened transcendance: like, roughly, Michael Rother and Bohren & Der Club of Gore enacting a slow-motion ritual in the remotest Pennines – ★★★★” MOJO Magazine

“There’s really no one else who can create (and sustain) the darkly seductive mood that’s embedded within his work” Aquarium Drunkard

“When McPhee is at his best, there is absolutely no one else that can match his singular slow-motion magic” Brainwashed

deanmcphee.co.uk

In the late 1990s Robert Dallas Gray (né Johnston) co-founded the cult UK band Life without buildings, whose song The Leanover enjoyed a resurgence in late 2021 as a result of viral TikTok trending; the band's monthly Spotify streams jumped to over 12 million as a result. After a long break from music Robert began playing as a solo artist, releasing the mini-album Reels in 2021, with artwork by Life without buildings bandmate Sue Tompkins, along with several releases in the duo Whin with Martin John Henry (ex-De Rosa). Robert's debut full-length, The Rain Room, is released on August 18 2023 on digital download and CD available at Bandcamp, and on streaming services. Like Reels, the tracks are instrumental, mostly played on electric guitars, with organ, lap steel and electric piano decorating a few tracks. They derive from improvisations, although some are more structured than others, and all were played and recorded at home during 2021 and 2022.

https://robertdallasgray.bandcamp.com/

Access Guide and Tickets for Personal Assistants

You can view/download The Glad Cafe's Access Guide here. If you require a ticket for a Personal Assistant/Gig Buddy (at no extra cost), please contact kim@thegladcafe.co.uk.