During the mid to late ’90s UK duo Swayzak — David Brown and James Taylor — were trailblazing an enthralling tech-house signature, alongside peers like Terry Lee Brown, Jr. and Terry Francis. Their deep, dubby and often minimal exploits quietly countered the electronica euphoria of the day. During their impactful reign they released a wonderful selection of singles on M_Nus, Curle Recordings, Ellum Audio and !K7 as well their 240 Volts label, with their pièce de résistance being the groundbreaking Snowboarding in Argentina.
Now a solo project helmed by Brown, Swayzak is set to release Lost Tapes, a compilation of tracks released over the past two decades. The release boasts “Sunshine,” a brand new single with Richard Davis. Additionally, “Smile And Receive” receives the remix treatment by Apparat and Davis & Brown; there’s a Mathew Jonson remix of “Another Way”; and a handful of late ’90s/early ’00s cuts, some of which are unreleased until now.
Related: Swayzak Look Back On Snowboarding in Argentina
Additionally, Swayzak’s back catalogue will become available online for the first time, including B sides, demos, unreleased tracks and live versions, all presented in deluxe double digital disc editions.
Brown exclusively tells Big Shot, “Lost Tapes as the title says I guess is inspired by a CAN box set I saw in my local store. I was getting more and more requests to re-issue certain tracks. I set about gathering our recordings from boxes of old DATS, CDs, digital files and even cassettes from the last 20 years. I chose the rarer stuff I felt sounded sonically superior, mixes that were never released, tracks that had been shelved, remixes that never saw the light of day and originals that were quite rare 12”s only.
In addition to releasing Lost Tapes, Swayzak will also make all six of their albums — Snowboarding In Argentina, Himawari, Dirty Dancing, Loops From The Bergerie, Some Other Country and Serieculture — available in deluxe digital versions with unreleased versions, B-sides and remixes from Cassy, Apparat, Mathew Jonson and Alter Ego and others culminating in December.
And there’s thankfully new music on the way in 2018. Says Brown, “I’ve been working on a lot of new releases for next year and the time felt right to draw a line under the old material and re-issue the whole catalogue in full alongside the more cohesive Lost Tapes compilation, get everything in one place on the 240 Volts label and hopefully introduce them to a new audience.”