BLONDES

SWISHER (RVNG Intl.)

18/20

It seemed like this New York duo wouldn’t ever be able to top the majesterial Lover (from the second 12” and compiled on their self-titled debut ‘album’ which rounded up the assorted released singles) one of the truly transcendental moments in early 21st century dance music history. On Swisher, they’ve done it. One of the most consistent dance albums of recent years, it situates itself somewhere between 100% Silk’s retromaniac house abstractions, the sublime strangeness of early acid tracks and the sharpened, sleek sophistication of endless contemporary German labels. House for the head, and the heads then.

Swisher abounds with signifiers that connote a sense of retro-futurism: we hear past-cliches mutating into new forms: Bora Bora falls into the kind of ketamine-house rabbit hole so beloved of Ricardo Villalobos, but swaps his queasily-intimate live-seeming percussion penchant for an intimately-queasy disorientated clank’n’slide down into a new age industrial pit; it clicks, whirrs, rushes, swoons, jets by and crawls to a standstill. Simultaneously. Poland is another deep analogue soundsystem banger, all gloopy 303 basslines scuttling under gorgeously flourescent, brittle synth lines and stardust nu-disco arpeggios that’re wrapping themselves around recontextualised dub-techno chords.

Closer Elise could just be a contender for song of the year; built around a delicate, melancholy faux-oriental melody it grows into a Balearic stormer, a peak-time destroyer, a perfect reminder of why, at its best, this is the best kind of music we have. A triumph.

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Words: Josh Baines