I’d like to take a moment to suggest a moratorium on duos. Specifically, I’m referring to duos that consist of bass and drums. I like bass. I like drums. I like them together. But you’ve got to have a hell of a musical vocabulary and a really unique vision and songwriting style to make this work without adding anything else to the equation. Swims, based out of Sacramento, the new duo capital of the universe, know their way around their instruments and it shows all over this six-song EP. What they don’t know how to do – like many of their all-too-numerous nü-prog brethren – is write a song that functions on any level besides “hey this part is cool, and so is this one, let’s stitch them together until we get a three-minute track.”

Like their similarly afflicted hometown “heroes” and obvious point of reference Hella, Mark (drums) and Paul (bass) are technically gifted but have yet to write a song that really, truly works from beginning to end. You can fingertap, and do awesome fills and intricate rhythms, and get interesting sounds out of your equipment till the proverbial cows come home, but it just doesn’t add up to a fulfilling listen. I like that Swims are a bit more patient in their arithmetic exercises than Hella (read: they don’t give me a fucking migraine), but their stripped-down bass-and-drum mathrock needs either a more interesting vision or another instrumental contribution to pay off.

There are promising bits and pieces of songs here and there that could have been awesome, but this EP overall just does nothing for me. My advice: try writing a chorus or two, get a third band member, do something, ANYTHING, to distinguish yourselves and give me a call in a couple years.
www.swimsband.com

Lucas Salg

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 Past Constructive Criticism

Kyle posted the following Constructive Criticism: What bands do you listen to? I'd like to hear exactly whom you think has more of a musical "vision" than SWIMS or Hella.

Matt posted the following Constructive Criticism: This has to be the silliest review I have ever read. It's obvious that Mr. Salg here has no point of reference OTHER than Hella. And music is more than just about songs...it's about expression, it's about color, it's about ambience. There are plenty of bands in Sacramento (hell, in the WORLD) that write accessible songs, but too few that make truely groundbreaking, challenging and fun music like SWIMS.