It’s uncanny the reunions that have taken place across the pond since shoegazing trailblazers My Bloody Valentine re-formed in 2007 (the same year as Scotland’s the Jesus and Mary Chain, who predate the movement but possess many of the genre’s sonic attributes). Swervedriver, Slowdive, and most recently Ride are all working the reunion circuit.
Ride’s debut, 1990’s Nowhere—with its bleak and cryptic cover art depicting a nearly colorless wave waiting to break—remains one of the canonical works of shoegaze. Beginning with a deluge of effects-heavy guitar that circles and bleeds into a bouncy, looping bass line, the epic six-minute-plus opener, “Seagull,” doesn’t lack for subtlety. The greater mission of guitarists Mark Gardener and Andy Bell (later of Oasis) seemed to be building slow burns that pummel rather than taper off towards an ominous horizon. And let us forever praise the heavy hands and lead foot of drummer Laurence Colbert. One of the album’s best tracks, “Dreams Burn Down,” begins with a supreme beat that could back the most abrasive bloody-murder screaming as well as it does Gardener’s disenchanted croon.
Reunions might be a dime a dozen these days, but this one’s not to be missed.
Besnard Lakes open. 9/25, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 4746 N. Racine, jamusa.com, $35. 18+