“A reference to our old Groovetech radio days and the tracks we used to play in the early days of internet broadcasting, lots of music from that time we were in our element” ~ Swayzak

David Brown and James Taylor began making music in 1993 and in those post-iron curtain times took much inspiration from the dark and cold eastern block. The Swayzak name came later as much inspired by eastern Europe as it was Hollywood .. this is indicative of the juxtaposition of Swayzak. Before Googling and the facebook revolution, information was spread by word of mouth and paper and record stores, reputations built on musical prowess and friendships. Swayzak used the technology of the times; fax, pagers, photocopiers and answering machines to spread the word. But it was only in 1997 by releasing their first vinyl record “Bueno/Fukumachi” (a record of deep dubby minimal house inspired as much by manga as a trip to Spain) to much hulabaloo of those who had picked up on their sound. Luckily, this was enough to inspire the young chaps to make more records on their self funded label.

Laurent Garnier’s “beautiful and moody” answering machine comment gave them much confidence in their sound. As things moved forward via strange twists they found themselves in 1998 releasing a debut album “Snowboarding in Argentina“ to much critical acclaim. An album with one misguided aim to fund a snowboarding holiday! one that hasn’t quite been achieved, though Argentina has been gigged several times! However it did put them on the road to bigger things, playing everywhere from Chile to Japan and quite a few places in between.

A new label services deal with !K7 was announced this year that will see the relaunch of the Two Hundred & Forty Volts label. A full re-release of Deluxe Editions of the entire Swayzak catalogue alongside sub-labels Swayzak Recordings, Voltmusik, Snooploops and Disco Dub Plates will launch the campaign, the majority of which has never been available digitally before now.

The ‘Lost Tapes’ compilation was be released in December just gone, a retrospective of Swayzak works which alongside unreleased and material will include a brand new Swayzak single paving the way for 2018 with new original material on 240 Volts, 17 Steps, Rekids, Bella Union and more… In these times of micro-genres and rapid rise DJ stars, Swayzak continues to stick to his guns, happy in his outsider status and content not to hop on to any passing bandwagon.