OX4

1. Chelsea Girl
2. Drive Blind
3. Like A Daydream
4. Taste Reinhören
5. Dreams Burn Down
6. Vapour Trail
7. Unfamiliar
8. Leave Them All Behind
9. Twisterella
10. Ox4
11. Birdman
12. From Time To Time
13. How Does It Feel To Feel?
14. I Don't Know Where It Comes From
15. Black Nite Crash

In the early 1990s, Ride was a leading light in Britain’s shoegaze scene, releasing a series of influential EPs and four studio albums, including its landmark debut Nowhere. The acclaimed Oxford quartet broke up in 1996, but will reunite this year for an upcoming tour that begins with a performance on the main stage at Coachella on April 10 and 17.

To help celebrate the band’s reunion, Rhino will reissue OX4, a 15-track best-of collection originally released in 2001, which has been out of print for several years.

Mark Gardener and Andy Bell (guitar/vocals), along with Laurence “Loz” Colbert (drums) and Steve Queralt (bass) formed the band in 1988. After signing with the legendary British label Creation Records in 1990, and later with Sire outside of the UK, the group recorded four EPs: Ride, Play and Fall (1990) and Today Forever (1991), plus four studio albums: Nowhere (1990), Going Blank Again (1992), Carnival of Light (1994) and Tarantula (1996).

OX4 features selections from each of Ride’s studio recordings, which are arranged chronologically to create an inspiring overview of the band’s artistic evolution. The set opens with “Chelsea Girl” and “Drive Blind” from the group’s self-titled debut EP, which was the first of three EPs that Ride released in 1990. The collection touches on the other two EPs with “Like A Daydream” from Play and “Taste” from Fall.

The throbbing swirl of melody and dissonance that powers “Dreams Burn Down” originally appeared on Fall, but was also featured on Ride’s full-length debut, the now-classic Nowhere. Pitchfork and NME both named it one of the Top 100 Albums of the 1990s. (Rhino Handmade also released a remastered and expanded version of Nowhere in 2011 to celebrate the album’s 20th anniversary.) Also included is Nowhere’s classic finale “Vapour Trail,” regarded by many as the band’s signature tune and named one of Pitchfork’s Top 200 Tracks Of The 1990s.

The second half of OX4 focuses on Ride’s musical progression between 1992 and 1996 as it embraced new sounds and dynamics. Their heralded 1992 sophomore album Going Blank Again is represented with its epic opening opus “Leave Them All Behind” as well as “Twisterella” and the band’s ode to their home zip code “OX4.” The band’s final two albums, Carnival Of Light (1994) and Tarantula (1996), are also highlighted with such tracks as “Birdman,” “Black Nite Crash,” and their cover of The Creation’s “How Does It Feel To Feel?”

Since disbanding in 1996, Ride’s worldwide legend and lore have only continued to grow. Modern day disciples such as Animal Collective and Deerhunter wear the band’s influences on their sleeves while a generation of fans has been pining for a reunion, including Radiohead who famously pursued the band to open for their 2001 gig at Oxford’s South Park. Nearly 20 years later, the wait is almost over.

To the bitter disappointment of a marginal music-loving demographic in Britain at the time, the 1980s were not the 1960s. Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet were hardly a match for The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. We were born in the wrong decade and we wanted our money back!

In the U.K., a thriving, yet by nature defeatist underground scene built up around The Smiths and ur-noiseniks The Jesus & Mary Chain, whose contemporary triumphs were feeble in the light of their worldwide influence in the years to come. In America, a parallel alternative culture went beyond high-speed hardcore punk in slower, more experimental, no less mind-bending directions. When Sonic Youth, Hüsker Dü and Big Black landed in Britain circa ’85-’86, it was apparent that both sides shared a distaste for the mainstream bland-out, and they began to cross-pollinate.

It was against this backdrop that the four members of Ride came together. Mark Gardener and Andy Bell, their two singing guitarists, were school friends from Oxford, who soon fell in with bassist Steve Queralt, largely because he worked in the local record shop. The trio were just coalescing into a band, when Andy and Mark started at Banbury Art College, and hooked up with fellow student and drummer, Loz Colbert. Together, they plunged into the multi-coloured world of sound, past and present – as friends, as listeners, as Ride.