Published in DJ Magazine. Text `by Richard Brophy (2004)

It sounded like something a 70s rock band stuck in the middle of a particularly ‘difficult’
album would resort to, but for UK techno outfit Swayzak, re-locating their studio to a house 
in the French countryside has allowed them to make the best long player of their career. 

Taking a radically different direction from their third album, 2002’s electro-fied ‘Dirty Dancing’, 
‘Loops From The Bergerie’ - the title is inspired by a movie soundtrack penned by French crooner 
Serge Gainsbourg  – sees David ‘Brun’ Brown and James Taylor look to the deep, dubby techno that 
shaped past Swayzak releases like ‘Snowboarding In Argentina’ for inspiration.

Instead of merely re-visiting past glories, ‘Loops’ sees Swayzak swap the purely synthetic approach, 
adding organic elements to their textured, electronic sound.

‘Loops’ marries pristine techno atmospherics and stark, staccato beats with smoky blues guitars, 
the legacy of 80s synth innovators, hazy, freeform rock shapes and deeply introspective lyrics – 
articulated by a number of guest vocalists.

There’s the fractured guitar shards and doomy vocals that echo the tortured genius of Joy Division 
on ‘Keep It Coming’, while new single ‘Another Way’ features Richard Davis’s emotionally brittle 
narrative over dreamy Detroit chords.

On ‘My House’, Davis’s melancholy vocals documents the end of a tattered relationship to a bluesy, 
minimal house backing, while Brun offers hope of a lovers’ reconciliation with his heartfelt pleas 
on the upbeat, piano-led ‘Snowblind.’ 

Love, albeit of a twisted nature, is long term Swayzak collaborator Clair Dietrich’s concern on 
the dreamy ‘Then There’s Her’. Meanwhile, the blues play a role on the glitch’n’guitar atmospherics 
of ‘Jeune Loup’ and on the live, percussive electro-breaks of ‘8080’, which showcases French singer 
Mathilde Mallen’s enigmatic vocals.

The end result is a beautiful but haunting work that’s more emotive than a shed load of techno soul 
and more daring than a legion of laptop pioneers and men wielding mullets and guitars.

“We were trying to go to where we had been before, to go deeper and back to the sound of 
‘Snowboarding’ because we love atmospheric sounds and having feeling in out music. When we 
started off, we were influenced by Juan Atkins and the soulful Detroit sound as well as Basic Channel 
and Maurizio - we didn’t realise that techno could sound so great,” Brun recalls.

“This time round though, we also wanted to use organic sounds and, although we’ve been called 
depressing in the past, I take that as a complement – great bands like Joy Division are completely 
depressing,” he points out. 

“Some people have even said that ‘Loops’ is the album Joy Division and New Order never made. 
There are loads of influences on the album - we were inspired by everyone from John Lee Hooker 
to Talk Talk - so we’re not making a conscious effort to copy them. Anyway, we don’t mind being 
compared to New Order. After all, ‘Blue Monday’ was one of the greatest dance records of all time.”

Shifting their studio set up to include live drums, percussion and guitar, Swayzak’s working 
environment also underwent a transformation – as they moved from the anonymity of churning out 
techno in an urban setting to the isolated splendour of rural song writing and composition.

“There’s only so far you can go with a laptop and, although there are some brilliant exceptions, 
most music made in this way just ends up sounding the same. This time, our laptop was relegated 
to just a tape machine and we took the classic way of making an album,” Brun laughs, remembering 
the month he, Taylor and Swayzak’s ‘secret’ third member, Kenny Patterson -  who has engineered 
everyone from Broadcast to Placebo -   spent in a country house outside Montpellier in France.

“Most of the vocal tracks were done in one take and if you listen carefully you can even hear 
some background noise. We didn’t want to make perfect music, it’s good to have flaws,” he believes.

“ Richard Davis wrote the lyrics on ‘Another Way’, while we collaborated on ‘My House’ and ‘Snowblind’,” 
Brun says of the deeply personal narratives on the album.

“We’re similar in our outlook and we’ve both been through a lot of relationships, so the lyrics are 
all about our experiences. In places, the album gets very dark,” he admits.

Perhaps the other main factor in shaping Swayzak’s most introspective work to date is the fact that 
the only outside human contact they had was with their guest vocalists’ sporadic visits to their 
studio outpost.

“We were really isolated and cut off from our everyday routine. We were up in the hills, there was 
no mobile phone signal, no Internet, no TV, but we really enjoyed it and would do it again. Apart 
from minor incidents like the worst storm in 20 years knocking out the power when were in the middle 
of recording, we found that once you separate yourself from the norm, it becomes easier to write 
material.

“Having said that,” Brun adds mischievously, “James tried to spend time up there on his own when we 
were finished recording, but he had to go back to Montpellier after a few weeks. He couldn’t take it!”

It would be easy to accuse Swayzak of jumping onboard the ‘dance music flirting with live elements 
in order to survive’ bandwagon if it wasn’t for the fact that they’ve used vocalists like Benjamin 
Zephaniah and Kirsty Hawkshaw on their previous albums.

By the same token, Swayzak have never remained rooted in one sound long enough to stagnate, witness 
the quantum creative leap from ‘Dirty Dancing’ to ‘Loops’. 

While their new album is in keeping with their usual genre-hopping behaviour, Brun nonetheless believes 
that electronic music has reached an impasse – and that the it’s time to for the DJs’ domineering presence 
to take a back seat.

“When we play live, we use a full live band because people want a human element, spontaneity and random 
elements that aren’t pre-programmed,” he reckons. 

“Dance music has been done to death by DJs playing repetitive, pounding techno for four hours, supposed 
superstars demanding fees no one can afford, too many compilation CDs and guys with keyboards on 
Top Of The Pops, who are producers and not artists. It’s become boring and staid and that’s its downfall,”
Brun believes.

“Musical tastes are fragmenting again: young people are looking for a group that they can identify with, 
like Goth or punk. Acid house broke down these barriers and brought everyone together, but things are 
changing. People have moved on and want something different, and hopefully ‘Loops’ will appeal to the 
trendy coffee table listener, an audience that we want to establish ourselves in,” he says without a 
trace of sarcasm. 

“Our music appeals to a much older audience in Europe and even Dolce & Gabbana loved our recent Fabric 
mix CD,so we’ve already become quite fashionable without even trying!”

While a career-oriented producer would have remained silent about dance music’s many woes and wouldn’t 
have run the risk of talking themselves out a job, Brun is refreshingly honest. In the same way that he 
and the rest of Swayzak’s extended family lay their souls bare on ‘Loops’, he has no problem giving vent 
to his frustration about the state of the UK music industry.

“People appreciate good music, but it’s like we’re not allowed to hear it on the radio,” he says pointedly.
“Whenever I switch on Radio 1, I have to turn it off after 10 seconds. It’s controlled by a Mafia and the 
only good show is John Peel. People aren’t ignorant, they have good taste, but they’re being bombarded with 
useless information, but hopefully iTunes will revitalise electronic music and give people more choice again.

“It’s like when we started out, no one would listen to us or release out music, so we started our own label, 
240 Volts.”

Although still based in the UK - “I’m still drawn to the anonymity of London” – Swayzak’s real home is on 
the continent. ‘Loops’ revisits their love of hazy, Basic Channel-style dub techno, they enjoy a much stronger 
following in Europe and even their imprint is distributed by Cologne-based operation, Kompakt.

“Germany is the place where we get the most support for our music,” Brun confirms. “We get invited to play 
there a lot and have built up a lot of strong bonds there, including Kompakt, who are well organised and 
honest, a rarity in this business.”

Indeed, like many producers, Brun claims that, before they established lasting relationships with !K7 
and Kompakt, the labels that released their first two albums, ‘Snowboarding’ and ‘Himawari’, went out 
of business. 

This meant that Swayzak couldn’t release the albums themselves because the labels still owned the rights 
to the music.

“I suppose we’re just not businessmen,” Brun says, stoically shrugging off the problem.
 
“We’ve had a few upsets, but we’re still having a lot of fun and we don’t have to do a 9 to 5 job,” 
he adds.
“We’re not looking for a big pay cheque or trying to make a fortune from what we do. The most important 
thing for us is being happy with our work and doing it with a passion. Once we can do that, nothing 
else matters.”

‘Loops From The Bergerie’ is out on !K7 now.