Having played last year’s Glastonbury at the request of Emily Eavis, Swimming have every right to feel positive when releasing their debut album. ‘Panthalass’ is a confident mash-up of post-modern sound, an imagined neon haze of electronic beats and melodramatic rock. While ‘Ease Down the River’, is equally notable. It’s echoed, almost Buddhist in beat with pastoral hymns that cut in two near the finish to give way to more electronic blare, puts it closer to the score from Bladerunner. Unfortunately the majority of tracks, like ‘Crash The Current’, have no catchy riffs or stick-in-your-head lyric and get lost in a musical tangents. They throw themselves in the deep-end of experimental music and it’s easy to spot Swimming’s influences (The Pixies, The Doors, Pink Floyd), but despite two good tracks, the band get too caught up in trying to sound edgy, that they sound more like an experimental Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, with too many different techniques employed here.
