There are days when you regret certain "creative impulses" which lead you to writing a fanzine when you could very well let yourself be caught up by the music without any thought of an article to write. Especially when you have to deal with Today Forever, the EP and the video. For absolutely opposite reasons, l feel almost unable to describe either one of them. Let me explain, beginning by what's essential, music.
"To criticise" a record; the word itself is upsetting even before you look at it. What right do you have to criticise music, whatever it is, that some will like and others won't? What right when, as it happens for Ride, no criticism would be stable enough not to tumble after a first hearing, what right then to try and analyze it when it is such a pleasure simply to listen to it? Well, the right I take it since writing a fanzine is talking about a band, and talking about a band without referring to its music...You got it.
So, if you admit that I have a right to do so, how could I criticise this new EP, this Today Forever, a pearl of great price taken out from the ocean depths (where sharks roam as everyone knows)? How could I even just talk about it when music takes a grip at my throat and chokes every word that comes to mind? Question... should I remain silent on this record? You as me, you have heard it a hundred times, home, at full blast or in your walkman (I love that). You have your opinion - so have I - if you read this fanzine, you are seduced, already.
Still, somehow, I know I must speak about it, if only to calm the anguish
of the white page...To stir my inspiration, music of course. And the record
plays on as my mind flies away. Impossible to concentrate on words. Words are
clumsy, language does not fit. Only images come to mind, impressions, feelings
too.
Then my decision, unshakeable. I leave this too beautiful music untouched. The
intensity of the bass guitar which echoes the accelerating rhythm in your heart,
the spirals - slow and graceful, quick and fiery - of the guitars, the once
obvious, once insidious power of the druns, the melancholic softness of the
voices, all this will be left unspoken of.
Neither am I going to talk about the fantastic cavalcade of Unfamiliar where the energy of the music is only equalled by the beauty of the lyrics (Sinking into unknown beauty for a day - I am sinking), nor about these three, four, five (?) bass, electric, acoustic and God-knows-what-else guitars superposed in Sennen and simply reaching the sublime in the last moments; even less about the rolling in Beneath which makes you feel the Earth is turning twice as quickly; nor, don't think about it, about the smothering crescendo in Today which, after soothing your last defence, takes you away in a merciless turbulence. I want her, I don't want her. And you're left broken, unaware, sans eyes, sans teeth, sans everything.
So don't insist. I don't talk. I listen.
Let's move to the image and these four promos that go with each track and
form the band's first official video. Here, a second fit of remorse, but for
a totally different reason, hard to admit: the video has disappointed me. For
the fan that I am, writing a single negative line on Ride is something unbearable,
worse, it's a calumny!
Not that it is so bad. I quite like Unfamiliar and the atmosphere created by
the rain, the broken windows, the fire and the quick wave motions of the red
cloth, the pale light and the black and white. I also like the beach scenes
in Sennen and its patchwork of colours, the image of the clock in Beneath and
the quasi hypnotic effect of the light spots used for Today, but the image is
far from matching the inner beauty of the songs. Maybe something impossible
to reach...You can't have it all and when music is exemplary, the rest doesn't
matter. Images are only an illusory addition. Yet, the video leaves me with
a bad frustrating feeling because I know they could have done better. Proof
is the promos taken for Like a Daydream and Taste (which I do like) with more
outside shots and less, just what is needed of, inside shots of the bancd playing.
The more so when the songs on Today Forever invite you to evade, to dream and
when images appear by themselves on the inner screen of your mind. Images of
water or fire, feelings of heat, speed or pressure. Anyway, I totally forgive
the band, not necessarily out of some "blind fanatism" as they are
not responsible for the filming or the mixing of the images. Ride being declared
innocent, all the blame falls down on the director, James Deegan, who obviously
could not give Ride the image their music deserves. Next time maybe!
Review by
Continuation of the interview that began in the first issue of Ticket to Ride. After having talked to the bass player, Steve Queralt, about the projects of the band and the tour, Andy Bell, guitar player and vocalist, spontaneously comes to us to take place in the interview. We're forgetting Ride for a moment : let's talk about the others !
What bands do you listen to?
Steve : Lots of actual bands : Madonna, Cocteau Twins, Sonic Youth...
This is not really the same music!
Steve : No, but we enjoy lots of different styles. In fact, we tend to
listen much softer music than ours, just to relax. Bands like the Cocteau Twins,
House of Love, Dead Can Dance, Lush... But we also love a lot the 60's, The
Beatles, The Doors...
And the 80's?
Steve : This is more special... I don't really enjoy them. The end of the
80's was not excellent, and things like Duran Duran... (sigh)
And you, Andy?
Andy : I enjoy most of the 60's music : The Beatles, The Doors, The
Stones, The Byrds. And more modern bands, too : Dead Can Dance, Cocteau
Twins, Lush, My Bloody Valentine...
Do you often go to gigs?
Andy : Yes, yes, every time we can. This is not very easy now, we don't
have much time anymore!
As for your music : who's playing the violin on Vapour Trail?
Steve : A friend...
And the harmonica?
Steve : Andy.
Andy : In fact, there are two tracks on which we use the harmonica :
Here and Now and Nowhere. On Here and Now, Mark plays it, on Nowhere, it's me.
Will you play harmonica tonight?
Andy, laughing : Ah, no!
And the lyrics , who writes them, Mark?
Andy : I wrote most of them. Mark wrote some, Decay for example.
When you're on tour, do you have any time to visit the town you're playing
in?
Steve : I loved Bruxelles a lot the first time we came. There was a big
square, I don't remember very well...
La Grand'Place?
Steve : I didn't know ! We haven't got much time today, we had a walk,
made some shopping. Oh, yes, we found the FNAC (multi cultural shops in France
and in some european countries)! Good shop.
Did you buy great things?
Andy : I bought a Byrds' album and another by the Doors.
It's funny how you love the 60's, which is not your decade!
Andy : when I was a kid, my father gave me a Beatles' record as a present.
It was the first music I listened to... But I also enjoy The Smiths!
Do you think that your music has anything to do with the 60's?
Andy : Yes, there are a lot of 60's elements and Beatles in it.
Steve : But we're a 90's band.
I do agree! And I said so in the fanzine, you have a lot of influences,
but you brought a new sound, and, in my opinion, very unique!
Steve : Thank you!
You don't seem to be too ambitious!
Steve : Let's say that we don't want to be too quick making things, this
is not funny.
But a life like yours must be quite exciting.
Steve : Sometimes, yes. A half is brilliant, the other is terrible, like
for example the boredom of waiting, doing nothing...
But the concert?
Steve : Yes, of course, but when we play the same thing every night during
three weeks...
But the bands making very long tours?
Steve (sigh) : I know. I think that the Pixies toured during nine months
last year. I wonder how the can bear that! And House of Love, we opened for
them last year, after Europe, went to the USA. Their tour lasted a year. At
the end, they all got mad!
Have you got other hobbies apart from music?
Steve (thinking) : Football... but what we're doing the most for the moment
is sleeping!
Andy : I read a lot and I have a cam recorder. I also enjoy taking pictures.
Let's finish with the fanzine, Ticket to Ride, do you like it?
Steve : Yes, yes. In the UK, they just called the fanzine RIDE.
Andy : Yes, it's very good! We love fanzines!
Steve : We also have one in Japan. And now one in Belgium, which makes
three! Thank you!
Interview
by
Translation by Thomas Burgel