Steve Queralt on CD CD from Steve Queralt is available for home delivery with Vinyl Records London, only £34 +P&P Ride bassist Steve Queralts debut solo album Swallow is a beautifully brooding ninetrack collection that combines the darkly textured soundscapes of early M83 and Sigur Rs with an electronic sheen reminiscent of Boards Of Canada. It also features guest vocals from Sonic Cathedral labelmate Emma Anderson formerly of Lush and SingSing 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. When words do appear, an underlying anger and political slant emerges and amplifies the albums dark intensity. This is most notable on the closing track, Motor Boats, where he overlays words from Julie Sheldons polemic poem The Same Boat Were all in the same boat they say, but I would disagree. According to Steve, these simple words of rejection capture the reality of our times perfectly. However, it was the collaborations with the two guest vocalists that tied the whole thing together and paved the way to the finished album. After a few false starts, I had started to doubt the project altogether. It was going nowhere, says Steve. Then, out of the darkness, Emma got in touch to tell me that shed found her voice and could I send her some tracks. A 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. Matthew 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. Id fallen out of love with it so many times I was thinking of calling it Loveless. But then, that wouldnt be the whole story.