New discovery: Channel Swimmer

Back in the 80s, there was a movement called Sampladelia. Dozens of Deee-Liteful crate diggers would delve into dusty stacks of vinyl and squeeze up against those rare grooves. The music - Groove Is In The Heart, 3 Is The Magic Number, My Definition Of A Boombastic Jazz Style - was funny, clever, inclusive, camp and, above all, fun.

Then the lawyers got involved...

Nowadays, sample clearance is such a minefield that you can only get away with it if you're mega rich (Jay-Z) or wilfully perverse (The Avalanches). And I'd like to introduce you to someone who falls into the latter camp.

His name is Channel Swimmer. He used to be Organ Morgan (amazing) and his parents know him as Matthew Mayes. Listening to his collected works on Soundcloud, you get the impression that this is a man who enjoys a balmy night on the beach. Bursting with juicy psychedelia, his sun-scorched Super 8 soundscapes will lodge in your brain like sand between your toes.

"It's very much in the same vein as The Avalanches, and was heavily inspired by their one and only album," he told Music Leech last year. "I'm basically having a lot of fun cutting the summery bits out of all my old and dusty vinyl."

Sample a couple of Channel Swimmer's tracks below, but promise me you'll go to his Soundcloud page too. There's a song there called Scent Of Rainy Pavements that'll make you grin wider than a tickled hyena.

Channel Swimmer - Zulu


Channel Swimmer - Charade


Footnote 1: According to his Twitter account, Matthew occasionally swims the channel. Jpegs please.

Footnote 2: Thanks to Ian Cottrell for the tip-off.

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