söndag 22 Jan 2006, 3:25

Most shoegaze fans have known about Castle Records' reissues of the three albums that constitute the core of the Slowdive catalog for some time now. They came out late last year in the UK and have gradually filtered over to the United States. Most of the attention has focused on the reissue of the long out-of-print Pygmalion, which was apparently trading for ridiculous sums on eBay. Pygmalion is a fantastic album – my favorite Slowdive album, and one of the most genuinely original records to come out of the shoegazer scene – but what's been neglected in the rush to shower accolades on this long-neglected classic is what's been done with Slowdive's first two albums, Just For A Day and Souvlaki.

The obvious changes are that each album now comes with a new disc of bonus material. The bonus disc included with Just For A Day does what Blue Day did, only properly: it collects the three EPs that preceded Just For A Day (Slowdive, Morningrise and Holding Our Breath) in their original release and running order, and appends a BBC session. Even better, Souvlaki's bonus disc includes the Outside Your Room, 5 and 5 (In Mind Remixes) singles, the latter of which includes the brilliant Bandulu and Reload remixes of In Mind.

The less obvious changes are that everything was remastered. I haven't heard the remaster of Pygmalion, as I was lucky enough to pick that up the first time around, but I've heard Just For A Day and Souvlaki a few times now, and they sound absolutely fantastic. The original issue of Just For A Day was crippled by bad mastering, which made it sound wispy rather than ethereal, and curiously washed out. The new version is a revelation, having a much more muscular sound. In fact, it makes clear what an aberration Just For A Day was in the Slowdive catalog, as it sounds nothing like the EPs that preceded nor Souvlaki, the album that followed it (really, it seems more like an aberration than Pygmalion to me). In fact, the remaster suddenly made me notice how indebted that album is to Disintegration-era Cure. The early EPs also sound much clearer and more defined, although I had to compare them closely to the originals before I noticed.

On Souvlaki, the difference isn't quite as stark, but it's still a significant improvement. Machine Gun, Souvlaki Space Station and When the Sun Hits (probably my all-time favorite Slowdive songs) have never sounded so good, with "Souvlaki Space Station" in particular having a much beefier, dubby sound that really benefits from the new mastering.

I strongly encourage both newcomers and longtime fans to pick up copies of these two albums; they make a strong case for Slowdive, rather than My Bloody Valentine being the most influential shoegaze band of the 90s, because you can hear so much of the gauzier IDM and shoegaze music that came after in these albums (although a good part of Slowdive's influence was their relative accessibility). Just For A Day, especially, has gone from an album about which I had mixed feelings to an entirely new, much more appealing beast. Check these out. You won't be sorry.