Wichita Vinilo y CD

Review: Although it didn't receive quite as rapturous reviews as its predecessor, 1990's Nowhere, Ride's sophomore album Going Blank Again remains one of the finest shoegaze sets ever recorded - a dense, psychedelic, glassy-eyed, heavily layered set whose immersive sound, harmony vocals and droning textures come together to create a heavy, immersive and enveloping masterpiece. This remastered reissue replicates the format of its 2001 predecessor, expanding the set to include a quartet of bonus tracks plucked from singles and EPs released in the same period. These include the glistening, dancefloor-ready dream-pop swell of 'Going Blank Again' and the wall of sound that is 'Grasshopper'.

Review: By the time they released Tarantula in 1996, Ride had run out of road. The band split shortly before the album's release and would not reform again for almost two decades. At the time, the album was panned by critics, but listening to this remastered reissue, it's hard to see why. Sure, the dense, dreamy and heady shoegaze sound they'd pioneered at the turn of the 90s was long gone, replaced instead by a nostalgic late 60s rock sound that doffed a cap to the Beatles and those Britpop era bands that emulated their sound (hello Oasis). The sound is authentic - all blazed vocals, alternately jangling and heavy guitars, dependable bass and wide-eyed audio effects - and the songs entertaining. Perhaps it will be judged more sympathetically this time round.