You don’t really think of Edinburgh when it comes to sludge pop. Perhaps, like me, you don’t even know what sludge pop is but, squared off with cynicism, you figure that such a term is classification without cause or perhaps even effect. Swole, however, will certainly have an effect on you.
Song writing isn’t where this trio is at as, even with their rambling post rock (now there’s a real genre) poetry driven into your head by Matthew Bakewell’s theatrical style sledgehammer vocals, they never really indulge themselves in any as lightweight as melodic explorations. The Swole way is to hit those skins hard and pummel those strings until something almost breaks with “WASPS!!!” getting closest to being what used to be called a single (in the good old days at least) even though you might think it a product of a seventies rock band high on something other than life.
Let down only by instrumental verisimilitude, Swole nonetheless demonstrate that the sun has risen in their sky.
The EP is available as a cassette from Bandcamp.