Label: Swordtail

  Released: June 1st, 2007

  Reviewed: 7/10

  Since the beginning of the, so called, digital era, there has been a steady flow of emerging labels and artists all around the world, with positive and negative results.

One of the labels that has been around since merely 2006 is Swordtail, one of the standout labels to provide quality releases as they go along. A young hellinas (greek) producer, Jim Siver, is the one behind release number 6 of this rising label. Native, the man behind the label and so many good tracks during the last years, and Simuck, a lad from Lithuania, are the remixers and that being said, I ll head to the most important part of the review : the tracks themselves.

“Lost places” starts off with some groovy thumping percussion elements and a very atmposheric feel to it. This is what one may refer to as a typical deep prog. There seems to be an annoying repetitive sound in the background, like a finger snap, that doesn’t help out the process of this review, but taking my mind of it, I concentrate more on the rich melodies that represent the main element of the track. A nice breakdown gives the track an extra amount of interest and in the end, this is a nice little track, not one that has enough character to be considered stand-out though, yet interesting and melodic.

Native provides his own take on this with his “lamington rmx”. Some echoing vocals, some live sounding bass lines and the track hits it off with some deep, weird melodies. For me, it’s all about the live sounding bass and the groovy drums. This is another good remix effort from Native, who supports his label artists in as many ways as he can. Dark stuff that I would probably enjoy listening to in my more personal moments.

Simuck’s “deep dub rmx” is somewhat different of the other two, heading towards a more deep house vein. This sounds like the perfect summer sounds for a lazy afteroon gazing at the sea enjoying the sun and the whole dizziness. Groovy, chunky and atmospheric this is a style of track I haven’t been listening to for a while, yet it encapsulates in a very special way the summer feeling and therefore can be considered as a fine example of laid-back music.

Swordtail keeps providing material for the deeper jockeys out there with a remarkable consistency. Entairtaining sounds and just in time for summer. Jim Siver seems like a young lad with possibilities though he stills has to polish his sound. Native is once again in good form and Simuck reminds me that there is a genre out there called deep house and does it in style. A listening is required for you to grasp the label’s sound.

S.A.L.V.A. [18-May-2007]