I didn’t realise until Free Swim got in touch with us this week that we were the first ever blog to review them, way back in 2010. Since their first EP, Two Hands is Ok, landed on our doormat in November that year, they’ve been building up a solid reputation as one of the UK’s most interesting and fun indie acts and favourable reviews by many others have followed.
The subject matter for their first three concept EPs, concerning hand grafting, a mountaineering panda and a south London bromance, shows their sense of English whimsy. Live they go one step further, with their bassist dressing up as a giant panda.
But underneath all this classic English eccentricity the band, which is in essence multi-instrumentalist Paul Coltofeanu, is actually very, very serious about music, sounding a little like Super Furry Animals mixed with Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev, but wholly unique.
On EP number four She Dreams in Lights they’ve toned down the whimsy and decided its time to unleash Free Swim, the indie pop and rock act on the public.
BBC Radio One has already bitten and Coltofeanu, who wrote all tracks and played all the instruments on the EP, turning up on Hew Stephens show recently to chat about the EP.
There’s still a loose theme to this EP, of a girl falling asleep and dreaming, but as Coltofeanu explains: “I was purposely trying to leave it a bit more open to interpretation and ambiguous this time round.”
It’s a savvy move, letting the public focus more on the music rather than the gimmicks and to showcase a five-song collection that stands up well against the band’s influences, most notably Super Furry Animals.
It’s third track Vuvuzela Venezuela with its sweeping build up, and opener Records in the Basement, where the protagonist falls asleep amid Mercury Rev style indie psychedelic pop riffs, that are the immediate standouts with their clever turns of phrase and twinkling guitars. Final track The Snooze Function, when the girl awakes, is the most psychedelic of this collection with more than a nod or two to The Flaming Lips.
By turning down the whimsy and focusing more on the music they’ve lost none of their excitement or identity and there’s every chance this could be the breakthrough EP they deserve.
9/10
by Joe Lepper
She Dreams in Lights is available as a free download from Sex Farm Records
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