Green vinyl. If you want to move forward you must be able to reflect. On their new album, the former hardcore punks Swain take this premise to heart and transform the uncompromisingly aggressive sound of their early days into an introverted frame of mind composed of mysteriously prancing harmonies and varied timbres. The band does not perform this style change in total negation of its past, but on the contrary creates a record that is clearly conditioned by its painful prehistory. The influences? The spherical moments of Radiohead - intertwined with the bulky charm of Sebadoh - all performed with a chameleon-like mutability, as they last offered Title Fight. "Negative Space" is the hope after a long period of self-hatred and a much-needed ray of ... read more