Customer Reviews

Snowboarding in Argentina

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

i bought this CD hours after buying their second release 'himawari' and i love this one even more so.

the production is slicker on 'himawari' and the songs are more accessible than 'snowboarding ...' whose only downfall is the lack of smoother production. some tracks, like 'fukamachi' or 'bueno' get the groove going and then elements, like high pitched waves of swooshing synth aren't smoothly mixed in and, if listening to it loud on headphones(as you should be),it can be really jolting and annoying (and even painful). however, the flow of tracks is smoother . each track is different but the groove is consistent with the exception of 'french dub' a slow and drony number that somehow does not fit with the rest of the songs and could have been left out. overall 'snowboarding ...' is a more cohesive effort than 'himawari' yet they're both just as fun to listen to which is the key word here: FUN. i honestly haven't had this much fun listening to music in a long time. it's music to enjoy without taking too seriously.

standout tracks:

'loz-rez skyline': 4/4 beats and a nuclear sounding vibe pulsate with warped synth and dub honks complimented by this deep rolling bassline. envokes images of flying low over developing third world cities and their skylines.

'fukamachi': trance! pure trance! with the exception of that god awfully loud burst of synth, it's perfect.

'burma heights': i listen to this track every morning while walking to work. it's very zen-like and life affirming with a hypnotic tantric groove that soothes your soul. halfway through the track you're smiling and grooving when the word "life" is repeated over and over as crunchy swirling percussion and deep bass bounce from ear to ear. it makes you happy to be alive.

'skin diving': brings up images of swimming through warm crystal clear waters in some exotic locale. very laidback beats, a wonderful strumming bassline, a steady "bonk" and slowly rising waves of warm synth like waves of the ocean. very soothing chill-out track for late nights and hand rolled cigarettes.

'cone': is not a failed attempt at jungle. 'cone' is being IN a jungle, dark and creepy with only a glimmer of light shimmering through at the right moments. a steady tribal rhythm and fuzzy tom-tom beats layered over that weird chant: "jah,jah,jah", "yah, yah, yah" or something like that. it only shows up twice during the entire track but it makes an impact.

i can't praise swayzak enough and i've been playing them for all of my friends getting the word out. these guys are nothing short of amazing. i only wish i could make music as good as this.

relax.

buy swayzak.

I bought this CD after listening to "Low-rez Skyline" through headphones at the record store. Its slow phase-in of instruments over a persistent, mutated "whonk" had a sort of JG Ballard, post-apocalyptic feel. Four or five other compositions have the same stripped-down, somber mood. The CD is a definitive soundtrack for cyberpunk sprawl, where the skies are permanently overcast with radioactive haze and cyborgs prowl through the rubble.

Swayzak makes music that is deep and yet not very complicated. I've listened to the CD over and over and it doesn't seem to wear out though it's very minimalistic.

Swayzak only play the right notes and makes it sound so easy to do. Turning the bass all the way up fulfills the pleasure.

As a true product of the musical diversity ever present in London, Swayzak drift among genres and create something that is undeniably original and distinctive. This is electronic music that has funk, feeling and atmosphere- not just breakbeats and samples.

Swayzak have been making music for the last 4 years but instead of rushing into releasing it they have taken time to develop their own style, learning to coax the maximum from their machines. This is evident in the maturity and depth of their music- in fact it was only by a friend threatening to press up their first record that they finally got the impetus to release it!

Swayzak are not DJ's, they make records rather than play them- but they are products of the DIY DJ culture of 90's London. They record in bedroom studios and self finance, distribute and promote their music. It was by a chance meeting in a London Record shop that they are now releasing their debut CD.

"Snowboarding in Argentina" is the product of 2 years work and features tracks from the Swayzak Recordings 12" singles plus previously unreleased work. This is by no means a compilation, but a fully fledged album thet takes the listener on a long and stimulating journey - touching on elements of dub, techno, house, drum & bass, hip-hop and ambient, yet this music is not definable in such narrow terms - it is truly DEEP.

Americans have been deluged with all manner of European electronic artists for a while now, and London's Swayzak lack the sort of stage presence orcelebrity connections that might make most of us notice them. But on Snowboarding in Argentina, Swayzak offers a passel of moody and sombertracks, such as "Speedboat" and "Bueno," that recalls the best elements of Detroit's pioneering techno sound without falling prey to robotic minimalism. Swayzak do displaytheir limitations on digressions like "French Dub" or the failed jungle of"Cone." But when they stick to their strengths, as they do on highlights like "Burma Heights" and "Low-Rez Skyline," Swayzak can fill a room with whatever emotion they wish to express. And as long as understated successes like theirs continue to be made, electronic music will with stand the hype.

-Justin Hampton

Swayzak is simple, yet sophisticated. I like the slightly "moved" beats of this artist. It has a "swing" to it, which makes the repeating music much more interesting. It's not ordinary techno, not boring house, but an ambient mix of it.

...Butt-shaking seems to be London duo Swayzak's Job One. Sure, there are different flavors here on their recent offering "Snowboarding In Argentina", but the overall spirit seems to be "Fill a room and then make it MOVE." So, on that basis, alone, how do they do? As my second grade teacher used to say: "Good job. I'm sure you'll do even better next time!" Although begining with the overlong and fairly uninspiring "Speedboat", a been-here/done-that cruise through the land of minimalist Detroit techno, the Swayzakers regain ones trust with "Burma Heights", a mystery-tinged environment of organ washes and lovers' whispers, which wastes no time with a sassy click/snap rhythm that will have you throwing your head side-to-side Peanuts-style. Fuzzy zaps and the sound of sheet metal being whipped through the air add to the excitement. The middle of the set indeed features a few cuts that are middle-of-the-set-worthy. The drum track on "Blocks", a seriously addictive amalgamation of shimmering waves of keys and mammoth blasts of bass, scrapes dutifully onward and upward to a delightful blooping and twinkling finale. "Fukamachi", is more than an in-your-face bass stomp, assembling and disassembling itself brilliantly. Rhythms leapfrog past and atop each other in an all-out jitery assault, until the drums skitter pleasantly out of control and the once tame organ iterations mutate into alien broadcasts. Too bad one has to slog through a couple lo-lites to get to these: the unimaginative yawner "Low Rez Skyline" and the directionless "French Dub", a just-woke-up keyboard melody's seriously slow-loping stumble through a mist of turntable fuzz; the track doesn't seem to know exactly what it's doing in the midst of what is overall an unapologetically for-the-dancefloor platter.

Despite these disappointments, the album's final third engages in an overall smooth landing. "Skin Diving", a truly oceanic slow-stepper, tweaks the drum all-over-the place, so that the insect-kiss that snick-snick-snicks its way around you at the start opens out into a Zepplin-force kick. Neither your head nor hips have hope for escape. "Cone", although certainly no revolutionary Jungle number, hurtles admirably like an Amtrack from hell to the end of the line. "Bueno", which tops things off, is a journey through cavernous space that comes off like the soundtrack to the cheesy SciFi movie you're embarrassed to like. The Future Sound of London get a nod or two on this one, as we travel over and relievedly past the ominous hum and scrape of awful machinery, to a finale in which the syntax of the 4-note keyboard squawks that dawned at the track's origin get a bit less playful and make way for a finish that's a tad more muscular. In a final accounting, "Snowboarding In Argentina" won't win any awards for innovation. Noodling and experimenation always play second fiddle to the importance of establishing a dependable groove that can live for seven-minutes-plus. What we have here is more of a mindless night for your feet than a complex stew for your head. Does that foretell a limited future for this month's electronic flavor-of-the-month from London? Not necessarily, for who knows what the future will hold. For now, Swayzak offer up a decent sampler of techno-done-well, and when it sounds good, that's all you really need.

Yes, well done. The most satisfying dance music is always the simplest. Utterly deep and beautiful, like the Pacific. So vast and simple. Something tells me this is the hardest kind of music to make, because very few people have the knack (Orbital and Leftfield at their best demonstrate a similar economy). The best beats and effects come in the right place, at the right time and without excess seasoning.

I'm with the guy below. Light on the mind, but HEAVY on the body!

Yeees, I realize that I'm seven years late with a reveiw of Swayzak's "Snowboarding in Argentina", but after recently acquiring it, I felt compelled to put my two cents in. At this late in the game, y'all probably could care less about my opinion of this disc, but hopefully this review will be "helpful" to the "Tyros To Techno". "Snowboarding in Argentina" is what they would categorize as micro-house--giving you very little vocally, but a whole lot more musically. This release is very big on atmospherics and is the perfect CD for background ambiance, or for a late night romp at the crib with some friends--the kind who won't judge your eccentric taste in music, of course. Swayzak has done an excellent job in making music that isn't busy, noisey or disruptive, but instead easy on the mind and heavy on the body. NOW, LET THE GYRATING BEGIN!!!!

Amazing simply amazing. And underrated completly