Photo: Wenn
Brummy five-piece Swim Deep were born out of the B-Town wave that emerged in 2012, but were always slightly in the shadows of their contemporaries Peace. That being said, Swim Deep did form part of a bigger picture that, at that time, was hazy dream-pop at its best.
Two years on, Swim Deep are back, touring with new album Mothers, (an ode to, you didn't guess it, “the mother of the universe”). It's a startlingly different offering - less drizzly Brit-pop, more, in their words,”psychedelic sex music”.
Austin Williams and co emerged onstage to the Jurassic Park theme; a momentous entrance that reeked of confidence, albeit a necessity if they were to pull off this huge swerve in sound. The need to double-take was in order, it was Swim Deep... on acid, as it were, no more knock kneed indie sensibility, more space ships and holograms – an unbelievable transformation.
From the Human League frenzy of ‘Grand Affection’ to the sassy saxophone accompaniment on ‘One Great Song and I Could Change The World’, it was a bonanza, with a pirouetting dancer, no less, amid the stage for their epic new psychedelic trip of a song ‘Fueiho Boogie’, an eight minute long banger that has to be heard to be believed.
Swim Deep’s show was an absolute mashup of genres, managing to be ravey and retro all at once. With a few years on the scene and, (we could be forgiven for thinking) their fair share of opiates, it seems that Swim Deep have made a point of actively casting off the shackles of their B-Town routes, and in turn are shining in a way that we could never have anticipated.
