{"product_id":"steve-queralt-swallow","title":"Steve Queralt - Swallow","description":"\u003cp\u003eRide bassist Steve Queralt's debut solo album Swallow is a beautifully brooding nine-track collection that combines the darkly textured soundscapes of early M83 and Sigur Rós with an electronic sheen reminiscent of Boards Of Canada.\u003cbr\u003eIt also features guest vocals from Sonic Cathedral labelmate Emma Anderson (formerly of Lush and Sing-Sing) and Verity Susman (Electrelane, MEMORIALS).Swallow has been slowly but surely pieced together between Ride albums and tours over the past five years and, perhaps as a result, has a slightly dystopian, Blade Runner feel that reflects the liminal spaces in which it was created.Despite the fact that the majority of the album is instrumental, there is plenty of power and emotion poured into these moody, moonlit soundtracks.\u003cbr\u003eWhen words do appear, an underlying anger and political slant emerges and amplifies the album's dark intensity.\u003cbr\u003eThis is most notable on the closing track, 'Motor Boats', where he overlays words from Julie Sheldon's polemic poem The Same Boat (\"We're all in the same boat they say, but I would disagree\").\u003cbr\u003eAccording to Steve, these simple words of rejection \"capture the reality of our times perfectly\".\u003cbr\u003eHowever, it was the collaborations with the two guest vocalists that tied the whole thing together and paved the way to the finished album.\u003cbr\u003e\"After a few false starts, I had started to doubt the project altogether.\u003cbr\u003eIt was going nowhere,\" says Steve.\u003cbr\u003e\"Then, out of the darkness, Emma got in touch to tell me that she'd found her voice and could I send her some tracks.\u003cbr\u003eA few files back and forth and an afternoon in the studio later and we had 'Lonely Town' and 'Swiss Air'.\"In the meantime, Verity from Electrelane had added vocals to the song 'Messengers' and transformed the track.\u003cbr\u003eMatthew Simms, now her bandmate in MEMORIALS, would go on to mix the finished album.\"Swallow has turned out so much better than I had hoped,\" enthuses Steve.\u003cbr\u003e\"I'd fallen out of love with it so many times I was thinking of calling it Loveless.\u003cbr\u003eBut then, that wouldn't be the whole story.\"\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SONIC CATHEDRAL","offers":[{"title":"Limited Edition Neon Green Vinyl 2025 RePress","offer_id":53207309353287,"sku":"TRI-66122","price":29.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0931\/9779\/5655\/files\/e2ca773c9df36332cfdccb45d74f38a5.jpg?v=1769381482","url":"https:\/\/towerrecords.ie\/products\/steve-queralt-swallow","provider":"Tower Records Dublin Ireland","version":"1.0","type":"link"}