Swim Team
2
Swim
Swim Records puts out weird, ambient music, most of it replete with synthesizers, weird noises here and there, and an over all spacey feel. I absolutely love this type of music, so my review will be biased.
Swim Team #2 is a compilation album of bands from the Swim label. There truly is not a “bad” song out of the 19 tracks included here, which makes this a rare comp! There is usually at least a handful of songs that made it onto a label’s comp as a favor to a friend or something, but none of that kind of crap made it here!
From the hauntingly chilling female vocals of Host to the all out rock guitars of Silo, one thing on the comp remains stable: the great, huge beats. One thing that can be said about the Swim label is that all of their bands provide the listener with propulsive, soothing drum beats, with a beautiful clarity and peace-inducing delivery. I’m not one who smokes the “dank nuggets,” but if I were, I imagine I’d be loving anything that Swim puts out. It truly is “otherworldly” feeling music!
Standouts on this comp. include the aforementioned Silo’s “Root,” a song with a distorted guitar riff on a loop with this really oddly timed drum beat, that made me sway back and forth. This was, by far, my favorite track on the CD. It’s one of those songs that I’ll never dislike, no matter what type of music I’m into at the time! Silo has another song here that sounds like a lost B-side from Billy Idol’s Cyberpunk days (I swear to God) called “Prime Movers;” it’s hilarious (sorry Nate B!)! Malka Spigel offers up a very Garbage sounding track called “Antimatter;” it’s awesome! My second favorite track on the comp would have to be Beatkitten’s “Bored?,” a very sultry romp through indie-rockdom, complete with disinterested sounding female vocals (a la Boss Hog) and very cool drums!
On the spookier side of things, Symptoms’ “Rose” was the most minimalistic track on the CD, it being nothing but a bizarre, distorted synthesizer, playing a very eerie melody. Yikes!
Overall, Swim Records’ second sampler comp is fantastic. This is perfect background music, perfect music for making out, or perfect music for just hagining around the house. It really is simply a wonderful work. A+.
Swim Records: http://www.posteverything.com/swim
