Swayzak
Loops From The Bergerie

Swayzak (the English duo formed in London from the meeting of James Taylor and David Brown in 1994) are undoubtedly one of the most interesting acts in the current electronic scene, both trendy and simultaneously of great intelligence and quality.

Starting with a rather minimal sound, they soon became influenced by the eighties trends that took over a few years ago. "Loops From The Bergerie," their fourth album, is perhaps the culmination of these two aesthetic drives: a convergence of musical trajectories that, if not impossible to imagine, certainly seemed improbable.

The album was recorded in a bergerie (as the title indicates, which reworks that of an old film and its soundtrack signed by Serge Gainsbourg), meaning a farmhouse in the south of France: a rather isolated and rural place, certainly atypical as a recording studio for an electronic album. This influenced the composition of the work (also thanks to the use of predominantly analog equipment), giving the result a more human, warm, and less abstract and technological flavor: it still deals with synthetic sounds and high-paced rhythms, but the final amalgam is truly high in emotional content.

It starts with "Keep It Coming" which echoes the spatial Jamaican rolling of certain tracks from Underworld's spectacular debut; "Bergerie", on the other hand, is an adrenaline-pumping techno fresco based on repetitive and distorted structures, engaging but a bit static; "Jeune Loup", "The Long Night", and "Then There's Here" draw fascinating chill-out landscapes barely disturbed by some timid beats while "Snowblind" triggers a mighty and fantastic pounding bass on ambient wave backgrounds.

But the real masterpieces are others: "Another Way" and "My House". Both very similar, they sound exactly like the perfect meeting point between the psychedelic house dynamics of "Screamadelica" and the urban lyricism of Berlin-era Bowie, all projected onto delicate techno-dub backgrounds.

"Loops From The Bergerie" is an album that starting from the funk-dub vibes of more than thirty years ago, arrives today tainted with all possible electro influences, sounding contemporary and referential, nighttime and luminous... An album that is perfect at the start of an evening as during an after-party, during a moment of relaxation and to accompany a frenzied lovemaking...

In short, an album you should definitely check out; it won't take long before it wins you over.