Richard Swift - Richard Swift as Onasis (CD)

All Music Guide

Richard Swift keeps his chameleon tendencies neatly organized by utilizing the ageold art of the alias, a trajectory that (whether it's meant to or not) helps to protect listeners who may be unwilling to follow him out of his familiar lofi/chamber pop disguise and into more challenging projects like 2007's ambient Instruments of Science and Technology and the following year's garage rock cleanout Richard Swift as Onasis. Swift, like many a cashstrapped artist, spent his formative years honing his craft on a fourtrack cassette recorder, a medium he has yet to give up on that's beloved for its financial and creative freedom, as well as its high yield. Richard Swift as Onasis is raw, fun, noisy, and occasionally beautiful, a notsosubtle blend of Link Wray, Ween, and your first highschool band. To his credit, Swift makes no allusions to the project's cultural weight, and taken with a case of sht beer, a hot September night, and a few friends, songs like "German (Something Came Up)," "Phone... Coffins," and "Whistle at the Bottom of a Shoe" might cause you to rifle through your vinyl collection in a mad search to discover what long lost Stax Bside he cribbed the riff from. - James Christopher Monger, All Music Guide Read more Less