No Pain In Pop

Meols Parade

Forest Swords just drafted a mixtape to promote his forthcoming 12″, debuting this batch of reworkings in the process. Two of 2009’s best tracks submerged in the same dubby zen as last year’s incredible ‘Fjree Feather‘, they show a gauzy, sophisticated control of texture and emotion rare in any genre. Pre-order ‘Dagger Paths’ now, out through NYC’s Olde English Spelling Bee next month.



MP3: Burial / Four Tet - Moth (Forest Swords rework)



MP3: Wild Beasts - Hooting & Howling (Forest Swords rework)

Tags: burial, forest swords, four tet, wild beasts

Bury the buoy

Raise your hands and hearts for another predictably great release from Forest Swords. ‘Glory Gongs’ does nothing if not maintain the ridiculously high standards set previously, running off the same slow release Satori and soulful ambiance. Backed with a brilliant cover of Aaliyah’s ‘If Your Girl Only Knew’, the cassette is out very shortly on US label Woven Tones and should be pre-ordered forthwith.



MP3: Forest Swords - Glory Gongs

Tags: forest swords, woven tones

Lock & Quay

Already responsible for one of my favourite releases of 2009, Forest Swords could cease to exist tomorrow and I’d still count them as one of my favourite acts of the decade. As it stands, their latest release is due out on cassette tape through Leftist Nautical Antiques in August (pre-order), and they’re playing their debut show at our No Pain In Pop showcase on September 1st in London.

The video looks like it should really belong to someone like these guys, but the weird organic samples and chasmic guitars - a combination that somehow seems to sit strangely somewhere between two of my other picks of recent times, Burial and Arch M, plus a hundred other influences I’ll never place - pulls it off, as easy as light through burn’d shade.



MP3: Forest Swords - Miarches

Tags: forest swords, leftist nautical antiques

Mount Hozomeen, North Cascades

“There she is!” yelled Happy and in the swirled-across top-of-the-world fog I saw a funny little peaked almost Chinese cabin among the little pointy firs and boulders standing on a bald rock top surrounded by snowbanks and patches of wet grass with tiny flowers. I gulped. It was too dark and dismal to like it. “This will be my home and restingplace all summer?”

…as I was hiking down the mountain with my pack I turned and knelt on the trail and said “Thank you, shack.” Then I added “Blah”, with a little grin, because I knew that that shack and that mountain would understand what that meant, and turned and went on down the trail back to this world.

Waning and wanting, Forest Swords’ debut release - ‘Fjree Feather’ - is available now.



MP3: Forest Swords - Down Steps



MP3: Forest Swords - Sisters

Tags: forest swords

Desolation Peak, North Cascades

Lost en route to Mt Jade, Forest Swords lead a pacing pilgrimage through the valley. Falling leaves like the sojourn; lasting and heavy. Satori mountain treks awake to a zen’d out Wirral night.

MP3: Forest Swords - Red Rocks Fogg

MP3: Forest Swords - Trust Your Blood

MP3: Forest Swords - Kaibasa Claps

Tags: breaking the silence, forest swords