Sweely
Le Son Dancefloor
The Sound of Limo
Sweely is one of the busiest producers out there. I mean this literally: the man releases 12-inches like they’re going out of style and drops SoundCloud loosies like Yung Lean circa 2012. But I also mean that figuratively. Every single track is busy, usually combining a dense and layered collage of technicolor synth work, wiggly basslines, bizarro vocal snippets and whatever else Lyon’s tech house chef de cuisine decides to throw in the mix. If you need a crash course in the Sweely sound, “Shake Dat Thing,” the opener on his latest EP, Le Son Dancefloor, is a good place to start. The tune is big and brash with squiggly synths, vocal samples, wheel-ups and little piano twirls that make it the campiest tech house song you’ll hear all year.
Elsewhere on the EP, however, he turns the dial down, making this one of his softest and most introspective releases. “Uno Dos Tres” is almost minimal (by his standards anyways). Yes, it’s got a sampled rap breakdown halfway through, but its slightly hazy lead line and slowly slithering bassline give us a taste of Sweely in warm-up mode. The real standout is “Le Son Dancefloor,” a melancholic throwback to the glory days of French touch. Thanks to the filtered disco samples and plucked bassline, it makes for a pitch-perfect homage that doesn’t sound derivative in the slightest.
Le Son Dancefloor is the final release from Gene on Earth’s The Sound of Limo imprint, which has played a significant role in shaping the tech house resurgence of the 2020s. Sweely’s EP provides a fitting bookend to both the label and that era, capturing the full range of emotions and sounds that have rescued the genre from the doldrums of Ibiza superclubs.
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