SWERVEDRIVER Vinilo y CD

Review: With roots in a band called Shake Appeal, who were informed by The Stooges and MC5, among other late-60s garage rockers, by the time we got to Mezcal Head, Swervedriver's second album, the group had turned their attention to what was blowing up Stateside. Taking a lead from the likes of Dinosaur Jr and - to less of a wall of sound extent - Sonic Youth, they combined elements of then fertile grunge and shoegaze scenes, to make a noisy but coherent whole. Released in 1993, the sophomore record first hit on the mighty Creation Records, which is a seal of approval if ever there was one. While still failing to really penetrate the mainstream, everyone from NME to Alternative Press heaped praise on the work, and listening back it's easy to hear why. Rough and ready guitar work meets a lackadaisically cool atmosphere, energy like a coiled spring at times.

Review: "If you had four songs ready-ish, you would record them there and then and put them all out ASAP. No such thing as 'saving songs for the album' back then," says Swervedriver's Jimmy Hartridge of life in a rock 'n' roll band during the early-1990s, late-1980s. The philosophy certainly explains a lot about urgency at the time, and why the band's debut album only featured six original songs in the end. 'Rave Down', 'Son of a Mustang', and 'Sandblasted' all featured on shorter releases amid a flurry of activity that saw four EPs hit between 1990 and 1991, leading up to the big reveal. Perhaps what's remarkable is the fact this approach didn't detract from sales, but instead build anticipation and hunger. When it finally landed, Raise was heralded as one of the finest moments in shoegaze at the time, with the grungier, garage-y, alt-rock tones the outfit would soon be known for are already audible.

Review: Straight outta shoegaze central, Oxford UK, since 1989, Swervedriver have been providing us with smoothly distorted guitars, vocals of refreshing reverberation and just those hints of angst and melancholia to get you through the decade. Future Ruins, like a lot of post and alt-rock to hit the shelves these days has touches of nihilism abound, although it's no secret Swervedriver have been offering this atmosphere for aeons longer than most. For fans of bands like Dinosaur Jr. yes, Swervedriver's latest effort remains firmly within the grungey and pastel confines of shoegaze, and with the genre's hey day missed so much but so many, it's never a pain to revisit the glory days of motion picture soundtracks.