- The music Andrew Field-Pickering and Ari Goldman produce as Beautiful Swimmers has often seemed secondary to their other joint activity: DJing. Last year's Son LP, a collection of existing singles and new material, was a neat summary of their playful, nostalgia-tinged aesthetic. But it felt like it was best heard not in your office chair, but in one of the duo's party-friendly DJ sets. This followup single, for which the duo migrate from Future Times to fellow DC imprint PPU, is a little different.
"Sleepyhead" is surprisingly introverted for the Swimmers. Mainly this is due to the twinkly Rhodes loop at its core, a thing so light and hesitant that it's barely there—as if somebody let their fingers fall pensively on the keys while their mind wandered elsewhere. Draped over a sleek electro chassis, and speckled with delay and micro-fragments of sampled voice, the effect is subtle but compelling, a moment of introspection in the midst of the dance. "Dunk" is a return to more familiar ground—not least because its rolling groove, though ticking along at a sluggish 90-odd BPM, still feels light-footed and infectious in the extreme. Sure, it's a bit too long, but when the water's this warm who can blame the Swimmers for wanting to luxuriate?
TracklistA1 Sleepyhead
B1 Dunk