Out of your mind
Swayzak have been doing their subtle take on dance music for what feels like forever now, and doing it really damn well. They have a sound that is always changing, with four full-length albums, close to thirty singles and dozens of remixes, they have a way of staying just slightly ahead of the curve of trends (ie: their 2002 Dirty Dancing album used elements of the pop-electro that were bubbling up from the underground, and featured the vocal talents of Adult.'s Nicola Kuperus), and as such have managed to always stay relevant and keep things interesting. And popular. Really, if you ask someone that is into microhouse (or minimal techno or whatever else you care to call it) if they like Swayzak, you usually get a "yes" out of them.
Anyway, Swayzak, aka James Taylor (who I posted a while back) and David "Brun" Brown, have been doing their thing for nine years now, and show no signs of slowing down. Last month saw the release of their Route De La Slack, a double-CD of their remix-work and rarities put out by K7, that should be essential listening for any current fans of theirs, and is actually a good way to introduce would-be-fans as well. On the remixes-disc, the Swayzak boys work over a wide swath of artists, including Señor Coconut (doing "Smoke On The Water" no less), French popsters Tahiti 80, and Slam's "Human," which is probably my favorite on there.
The rarities disc is no less impressive, and goes to great lengths to show the depth of their catalogue, spanning their entire career, and including unreleased or re-worked songs from the mid-90s through to just last year. "Mike Up Your Mind" for those of you who do know their catalogue, is an unreleased remix they did of the opening track from Dirty Dancing.
Anyway, I like the Swayzak, and I'm definitely happy to see some of their diverse work collected like this - if you like this track, you'll enjoy the rest of the two CDs too, so buy yourself a copy from our friends at Forced Exposure or Insound. You can also download it from iTunes or get it from Amazon.
PS: You've still got through sometime tonight to enter the Streets photo contest... get to it!