We ain't "Lying To You": Swim continue to impress on second single

08 December 2015, 13:15 | Written by Michael McAndrew

(Tracks)

(Swim)

It’s near impossible to hear the opening seconds of “Next To You”, the debut single from Malmo’s Swim, and not think of Phantogram.

The string section that kicks that track off—chopped, twisted, crushed and tossed back out like leaves put through a wood chipper and scattered back over the lawn—is so similar to the sample that opened last year’s “Fall In Love” that it actually caused me to double check my Soundcloud link. And the similarities don’t end there: Swim, like their American counterparts, are a female/male duo throwing disparate elements and spare parts together to create collages of sound much greater than the sum of their parts.

Listen to “Next To You” or the band’s latest single “Lying To You” long enough, however, and it’s clear that Swim are far more comfortable dragging that basic template to darker, druggier depths.

“Lying To You” is the most convincing evidence to date, its haze of stuttering drums and throbbing bass (presumably provided by Carl) refusing to dissipate even as a repeated synth line blinks in like a lighthouse seen from the water. Under cover of fog, Erika’s mysterious mezzo-soprano slips in and takes this tale of complicated love by storm.

As Erika herself says: "'Lying To You’ is about love. It is actually about love when it is only existing in a galloping mind. How you've tried to love someone who can't receive your love, and how it turns your love into nothing but lies.”

The Next To Me EP is set for release Friday (11 December) via HMWL.