Swansither - States

 Released: December 23

Following up to his previous album on Subexotic Records, UK-based modular artist Swansither (Tome Kennedy) continues to explore themes of shifting states of mind as he creates. Hence the title of this album "States." Because of the arduous year he has had, the nature of the album is quite a mixed bag of sounds and atmospheres. There are tracks such as "Moonflower" and "Harmonic Pulse" which convey a sense of sense serenity with the latter being a bit more energetic. But at the same time, there are others like "Not Fixed" and "After The Fire" which have a definitively chaotic energy to them representative of the chaotic times of his recent life.

What is more interesting are the tracks that seem to fall somewhere in between these chaotic bouts and these more serene pieces. A favorite of mine is the peculiarly named "Tanjreem" with its odd use of electric guitar to provide percussive sounds and scratching noises. But it's the vaguely eastern (for lack of a better word) quality to the music of this track that really captivated me. It somehow provided a grounded feel to an album that that is rather spacey (pun intended) at a perfect spot near the middle of the runtime.