ashamed to admit this, but despite the fact that the duo known as swayzak have been working together for a decade, this new release is the first time i have ever heard anything by them.

ashamed and now bloody annoyed, as this is a wonderful album of deep, rich electronic music. just how on earth have i missed this.

subsequently, i have nothing to compare this new album to from their history, but if some other country is representative, then i need to track down their previous releases as a matter of urgency.

if i drop in the phrases, subsonic bass, minimal but warm, sparse but beautifully melodic, then maybe you will get the idea as to how the tracks are made to impress the people who are lapping up electronic music across the globe.

over these 10 tracks, james taylor and his partner in the sparse groove, dave brown, create some incredible sounds within a limited sonic range that obviously connect to the current electro moods of 2007.

i am sure there are those who will be able to pinpoint which synths or drum machines, have been used to generate the thin cold clinical clicks and crackles that under pin most tracks, or the contradictory big warm pulsations that permeate and fill the void, but that’s not my world. instead i know i like what i hear and care not as to the origins, or micro-genres that are on offer.

however, where things take a side step from most of the  minimal pack, several of the tracks feature guest vocalist that steer the results into the domain of futuristic neo-soul, dipping their toes into the same league as stephen spacek, and even the stripped down electro soul of the smooth grooves of vikter duplaix.

however, for me, the best results are when they let the music, or carefuly programmed machines, do the talking, like on the ever so old school acid house mechanics of so cheap, and distress and calling, or the more hard edged set of ambient techno based tracks that close the set.

then, just as you are getting accustomed to the albums duality (the heart and soul of man vs the love of machines), in the middle of the tracklisting, there is a strange world music type of experiment, claktonic, where the familiar midi beats are supplemented by the appearance of tribal styled beats, along with what sounds to be a flute solo (though it could be anything of course!), an oboe, and possibly even a glockenspiel.

world glitch anyone?

so, for an hour of conflicting electronic music where human warmth, and cold technology are matched in heart warming harmony (the onset of parental bliss for one of the duo could be to blame for the loved up mood that ooozes out of these grooves), and a healthy dose of welcome experimentation, can i please point you in the direction of the newly revised dictatorship that is swayzak.

thank you.

 

tracklisting :

01 quiet life (feat. cassy)
02 so cheap
03 no sad goodbyes (feat. richard davis)
04 distress and calling
05 smile and receive (feat. cassy)
06 claktronic
07 silent luv (feat. les fauves)
08 pukka bumbles
09 by the rub of love
10 they return

 

more detail : here - - k7 records