Swirlies - They Spent Their Wild Youthful Days In The Glittering World Of The Salons

 

Swirlies - They Spent Their Wild Youthful Days In The Glittering World Of The Salons

(1995)


My copy: 2021 press by Taang! Records.


Keeping skeletal fragments of their early, Sonic Youth-on-happy-pills sound, Swirlies returned after two years with their magnum opus. Developing their shoegaze-centric personality further into the realm of synth pop, They Spent Their Wild Youthful Days In The Glittering World Of The Salons pushes the boundaries of both sound and rhythm while retaining a youthful innocence even in the face of occasional melodic conflict.

The stilted, scraping guitar of “In Harmony New Found Freedom” leads the percussion on an unstable tour of dynamic stops and starts, sometimes shuddering harshly with distorted tremolo. The blissful vocals of Damon Tutujian and Christina Files set hearts at ease even amidst powerful twisters of tremolo. They are more comfortable in psychedelic washes of repetition now a la Stereolab albeit with more pointed drum patterns and tighter emphasis on budding dynamic growths. There are brief sonic adventures all throughout the record including the low hypnotic growl of “No Identifier,” though these pace-breakers aren’t always in our best interest (their one tragic misstep in “You Can’t Be Told It, You Must Behold It”). “Sound Of Sebring” further embraces a gnawing European synth-pop vibe in its entrancing keyboard/vocal harmonies that are juxtaposed against a relatively crunchy drum beat. 

Their punk-adjacent roots are not lost, especially in the mad chugging that introduces “San Cristóbal De Las Casas” which then switches over into MBV tension/release tactics that are dialed up to 11 through a lengthy buildup that careens into a rapid-fire power-chord assault. They are shoegaze and synth pop in sound but energetic in tempo and structure; as even the romantic gallop of “Pony” burns up into a frantic acoustic strut with babbling samples. Then comes the cool, collected palm muting of “Two Girls Kissing” that later boils over in the choruses, becoming as instrumentally evocative as its title. The whistling effects that soar overtop the skateboard-rolling hip-hop-tinged beat of “Sterling Moss” complement the carefree, airy vocals perfectly. 

“Sunn” invites further breathability, bouncing between bent shoegaze guitar and ping-ponging synth though no song courts intimacy quite like “The Vehicle Is Invisible” where the music elegantly swings in waltz time across a nostalgic tone. The layering is the main draw, with a collection of effects intertwining to better the whole of the song - the structure itself also contracting and releasing back into a sweet fragility that is swallowed by synthesized rhythms. 

The talent for layering and composition held by the Swirlies is almost totally unparalleled for their genre. By folding in electronic elements they have both bolstered their sound and revealed a deeper sense of intricacy. Glittering Salons is both more cleverly written and more sonically adventurous, and is an ideal extension of their debut LP. Their interludes can feel like filler at times, but even the shorter fits of repetition are more interesting than handfuls of contemporary shoegaze efforts.

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