Blink, and you missed it. The career of London duo Swallow was more of a snapshot, since after their first album Blow from 1992 and an alternative version, Blowback, it was already over again. Now both works appear newly remastered as Blown – and that is certainly worth rediscovering. Mike Mason’s effects-laden, distorted, sometimes wailing, sometimes screeching shoegaze guitars, together with Louise Trehy’s ethereally dreamy, ghost-like reverbed vocals, form the sweet spot between My Bloody Valentine and Mazzy Star. Fittingly, the drum machines sound a little like industrial, though mostly restrained and unhurried, even if things get a little more jagged on »Sugar Your Mind«.
Between atmospheric instrumentals, there are highlights such as »Cherry Stars Collide«, a real hit with its crystalline guitar lines, or the ballad »Peekaboo«, which would also have suited The Cure rather well. With the bonus track »Blow«, with the opulence and orchestral force of a James Bond song, one wonders why the song was not on the original album. The remastering has also paid off, since the contrasts are now clearer, the vocals a little louder, and the hypnotic parts sound more dynamic too. That special moment in the early 1990s when shoegaze and dream pop embraced can now be experienced again and again – no matter how often one blinks.
