Ah yes, Swancore. I've touched upon it briefly in some of my previous entries but today's post is on a playlist I've had for several weeks now.
Swancore is a self coined genre by musician Will Swan. Widely known for his work in Dance Gavin Dance over the years, he began his record label Blue Swan Records in 2013. Since then, there has been a plethora of bands that have put out really solid material in my opinion.
Now, I could easily just copy/paste a bunch of artists that are or were under the Label, but that's too simplistic. This playlist is a mixture of some Swancore bands, as well as other bands that sound similar or take influence from Dance Gavin Dance in general. It's a weird sort of limbo in my head if I overthink it, but I see it like this:
Essentially there are artists that sound like either DGD or bands on the Swan Records Label, but are neither. Now, like all of my playlists, this is still a work in progress. Some get added to infrequently but this one is under the scope a bit more since I love this (sub?)sub-genre. Let's dive in now
Coletta- Flower Child / Raspberry Cough
Coletta has been mentioned previously on this blog, as well as a few others that are on this playlist. Their flow is addicting, and it's nearly impossible to not move a bit to their music. Actually, since making this playlist they released a new single, Bloom. It's not as Swancore-esque like their other content, but it has some nice R&B vibes to it. I appreciate the versatility in style
Dwellings- Lemonade
I know a lot of DGD fans, and the majority of them prefer when Kurt Travis did their clean vocals. Fair enough (I prefer Tilian personally) but Dwellings clean vocalist is pretty damn close in sound to Kurt so I'm sure a lot of folk would enjoy them. See It Through is my most played and has the closest DGD sound to it; AND there's this proggy bit that is just superb.
Now how about some artists from the label itself? I think the most well known of the bunch would have to be Royal Coda. Kurt Travis hits his notes just as perfectly as he did back with DGD. If you're not a fan of these types of vocals but enjoy the instrumentals I recommend Strawberry Girls. Take a DGD track and remove the vocals, add some spice to it, and you've got Strawberry Girls. Tasmanian Glow has some sweet guitar and hits perfectly. Mini Ripper has a more relaxed flow to it but is just as good. Another good band under the label, er, band that was under the label: Oranges. They only released one album before disbanding but it's right up there with the other artists on the label.
Oh, that's right. I mentioned Tilian and Kurt but neglected to mention Jonny Craig. If you know his history then you understand the song placements, if not it's not integral to the playlist but essentially he's a pretty crappy person which is a shame because he has a voice from the gods. Post DGD Jonny was in and out of different bands but did a lot of features. One of my favorites would have to be Hands Like Houses Lion Skin. Also on this playlist are bands that I had no clue existed until seeing Craig pop up as a feature. Inamorata and Pavilions both did a song with him and they're excellent.
I believe I've briefly mentioned Happy Hour and Shrezzers on this blog previously, but they both make an appearance on this playlist. Happy Hours Key Lime Pie is played way too frequently tbh, but it's such a solid song. Shrezzers (Shredding Brazzers), are really good too; and they've got saxophone soo. Sarcasm aside they are really damn good instrumentally and vocally.
I know this post is a bit all over the place but I think that's because I'm trying to cover all the little points that connect these artists together. I'd like to think that each song on here fits the overall vibe that I went for and I'll still be adding to it over time. I also just noticed how many times fruit was mentioned in this post, s h e e s h.
Hey, you made it! Thanks for checking out this post, I always feel my words do little justice for the music I post. Not a bad thing but if you're reading through all of this thank you! More playlists and posts coming soon here as well as on the FB page!
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