Richard Swift Richard Swift as Onasis by: Anna Rees Tue:15-Apr-08 Label: Secretly Canadian Year: 2008 WB rating 79 out of 100

Richard Swift’s surname certainly reflects aspects of his work. While some artists take years between album releases, Swift needed only months to release his follow-up to this year’s Instruments of Science and Technology. His latest offering, the double disc entitled Richard Swift as Onasis, is self described as an album of re-imagined ‘40s and ‘50s rock ‘n’ roll.

Having taken us on a journey through experimental electronica with Instruments, on Onasis Swift sticks his thumb in yet another musical pie. But while ‘40s and ‘50s rock ‘n’ roll might sound light years away from his work on Instruments, careful listening suggests that there is some undeniable continuity. That’s not to take anything away from the talented Swift. Rather, he gleans potent elements from the music deeply rooted in blues and rock ‘n’ roll and pours them into his Onasis melting pot, mixing iconic dancehall piano melodies with heavily distorted bass lines and roaring drum solos, familiar blues chord progressions beefed with heavily shaded guitar parts.

Throwing back to classic boogie woogie, doo-wop, rock ‘n’ roll, dancehall and blues, Swift’s titles vary between golden age titles as ‘Knee High Boogie Blues’ and post-modern monikers such as ‘Phone Coffins’. While very much steeped in the album’s pre-determined themes, Swift has avoided a straight cut and paste job. Combining the old and new, the Californian born artist has melded tried-and-true musical arrangements, stripping back vocals and updating tunes with contemporary brandishes. Lyrically sparse, any singing is exaggerated rather than driving, and used to colour the aural soundscape and shift focus to instrumentation, rhythm and melody.

Most of the tracks are relatively short, some barely longer than a minute – again echoing the accepted trend of the time. This decision works beautifully. Not only does it refuse the listener the option of tiring of what first appears standard 12 bar progressions, it plays around with conventional song structure – tracks such as ‘Opt III’ fading out almost as quickly as they fade in. This short length coupled with the minimal lyricism lends a slightly unfinished and spontaneous feel to Onasis. In doing so, Swift highlights the freedom of the period, the musicians writing the rules as they went.

Instead of offering a mere rehash of the past, Swift reworks common characteristics of blues and rock ‘n’ roll, tinkering with arrangements and updating interpretations of the early ages of popular music. In a time where retro is more prevalent than the now, Swift finds a new way to glance back, a manner that is neither retro, traditionalist or revisionist; a way that is original, a habit that is fairly common to Swift.