Ride - Nowhere

Fri 15th Apr, 2005 in Music Reviews

Being labelled “darlings” by the UK music press tends to equate to the ’kiss of death’ for most artists. While Ride had chart success with Going Blank Again, it never really reached the same heights as Nowhere and the less said of the later releases Tarantula and Carnival of Light, well, arguably the better.

“All killer, no filler” is a tag we hear often enough, but how often is it justified?

With respect to the shoe-gazing genre, there really isn’t a weak track here. Big walls of sound, wonderful vocal harmonies tied together with psychedelic ‘60’s tinged guitars. Ride unashamedly show the influences laid down to them by The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Rolling Stones, The Smiths amongst others, with The Byrds arguably being the most prominent.

When four young lads, all in their late teens, from Oxfordshire, formed a band in 1988, they quickly forged a reputation for delivering intense, loud, live shows. Having seen them on their Twisterella tour of Australia in 1992 I think, I can say that the reputation was well founded. That gig at Transformers in Brisbane is still one of the loudest that I have attended and none of their recorded material, even live recordings, have quite lived up to that night. It was this reputation that partially helped them gain their contract with Creation in 1989.

Alan Moulder twiddled the knobs for Nowhere and it is only five years after he finished mixing the Jesus and Mary Chain’s Psychocandy. It isn’t very hard to detect the aural similarities between the two albums: big walls of sound.

Their self-titled ep made it into the British charts in 1989 and Nowhere peaked at number 14 in England in 1990.

A couple of overtones from a guitar, the lick of a cymbal and then it all crashes in together. The opening of Seagull sounds like it’s finishing if all truth were told. The harmonious vocals remind that is not the case and the fact that the wall of sound is hurtling towards us at a great rate.

Kaleidoscope and Decay continue in a similar vein, almost frantic at times. I remember when I saw Ride live, how amazed I was with Laurence Colbert. This is a man possessed and boy, does he cut the mustard. It may be argued that it was all vocals and guitars, but in the quicker numbers, and a lot of the more sedate ones as well, Colbert’s intricate drum lines really shine and keep the ship on an even keel.

The opening tom-line in A Different Place provides a haunting change of pace and this is part of the beauty of this album. It has the ability to grab you on many different musical levels. One minute you could be pogoing around, the next, you are looking at your toes, doing little more than waving in the breeze in time to the music, dwelling on the emotions that some of these tracks have the ability to stir in you.

Dreams Burn Down is one of the greatest shoe gazer tracks written and will certainly send a tingle down the spine. Mark Gardener’s soft vocal is assaulted by an intermittent cyclone of guitars throughout. Try to track down the live version released on the Waves album for a different, yet no less emotionally stirring version of this classic song.

Polar Bear and Paralysed are also great songs of the genre with psychedelic, effects laden guitars layered over a strong rhythm section. Steve Queralt’s bass provides an elasticity to the tracks that, at times, isn’t all that noticeable, but then snaps back to let you know that it is there and you aren’t going to forget it.

Taste is just brilliant. I don’t think The Byrds could have done this any better, Gardiner and Andy Bell’s guitars jangling together in some kind of psychedelic symmetry. Beautiful stuff.

There are a couple more tracks on the album and one of those is a little tune called Vapour Trail. Indie 101. It’s just one of those tracks that everyone knows. While not the strongest track on the album, it did gain them the most notoriety, though strangely, probably not as much as Twisterella.

While some of the purists may argue that the earlier releases Ride, Play, Smile and Chelsea Girl (a combination of the Ride and Play eps) paint a truer picture, Nowhere really put them on the map. It’s just a pity that they couldn’t agree on which road to take.

Ps. if you get the chance, go and see Mark Gardiner acoustically as all the Ride songs he plays come up beautifully.