by RAF KATIGBAK

It was just over two years ago, on a sunny September afternoon, that a small congregation of about 120 Montrealers completely lost their minds. The location, a small loft on St-Remi, was a sweaty mess. The fogged-over windows (kept shut so as not to alert the cops) could barely contain the massive amount of bass pumping through the sound system. The two chaps collectively known as Swayzak were hard at work tearing down the house with their live set of unbelievably deep and funky tech-house. With every twist of the knob and push of a button, the U.K.-based duo had the crowd erupting in a flurry of cheers and mandatory move-busting.

“I remember that gig very well,” recalls Swayzak’s James Taylor over the phone from his home in France. “Intimate gigs like that are really rare nowadays. That was a very special gig for me, it always will be.”

Since their critically acclaimed debut album Snowboarding in Argentina, Taylor and partner in crime David Brown have released a slew of shit-hot 12-inches, a double CD mix, and three more full-lengths including the hot-off-the-press and most excellent Dirty Dancing. Although much has changed for the duo in the three years since that mythical Monday afternoon in St-Henri, the root of their sound has remained the same. “We still have a pretty minimal sound,” admits Taylor. “There are vocals in there now, but there’s not a whole lot else going on. Less is still more.”

The main difference with Dirty Dancing, Taylor points out, has less to do with a new musical direction and more to do with new technology. “This time we did everything digitally. It’s all done on computers, before it was mostly analog sources in the studio. So I think there’s sort of a coldness in the album that wasn’t there before. It’s a bit more brittle, a bit more… white. Not in a racial way but more in respect to the hues and tones, it’s bleaker.”

Adding to the bleakness is a rougher punkier synth-pop edge courtesy of guest vocalists like Adult.’s Nicola Kuperus and Germany’s Kotai, whose inclusion on the album will surely have punters quickly lumping Swayzak into the much-talked-about electroclash scene. A scene whose hype is, according to Taylor, somewhat unwarranted. “Electro’s been very much bandied around in magazines and newspapers and stuff lately. Which is a little fake in some way. They’re trying to report on something that doesn’t exist.”

Instead, Taylor prefers to look at the new wave of electro acts as just one part of a bigger musical picture. “Coming up from the inside, I’ve never seen it as a distinctly different thing. I think it’s just part of the whole electronic minimalist underground, which includes other sounds like Germany’s Kompakt label and the minimal dub of Basic Channel. They’re all the same to me.”

It’s this very same musical open-mindedness that gives Dirty Dancing its depth and variety, from the deep dubby dancefloor instrumentals to the edgier, punkier vocal tracks.

Although Swayzak are quick to dodge the electroclash tag, Taylor does see some merit in the so-called scene. “At least the music is interesting and strange. The people making it are not conventional and it’s sort of camp and sleazy. Dance music, at least in Britain, is all about blokes and taking pills and this music is just completely different to all that. It’s got some ideas and a sense of humour, lots of things that are important and that haven’t been around in dance music for along time. I think it’s refreshing in that way.”

So, do Swayzak think that most techno producers are too serious? “Maybe, but that’s okay, you express your personality through your music. We don’t take ourselves too seriously and we hope that comes across. I mean, we called our record Dirty Dancing. That’s the biggest joke there is.” :

With Aqua Bassino, Ewan Pearson
and Alain Vinet at SAT
on Friday, Oct. 25, 9pm, $20

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