Watch out for THE HAZARDS OF SWIMMING NAKED

THE HAZARDS OF SWIMMING NAKED are a 7 piece band based in Far-North Queensland. I first discovered this band one night at Brisbane venue the Lofly Hangar sometime in late 2008. I remember walking into the wonderful yet dilapidating warehouse style venue with their set as the sound track. These guys were playing in front of stack of broken old school televisions to a crowd of twenty-somethings sitting around on the concrete ground, drinking out of goon sacks and tallies. It was a great night and their tunes had really struck a chord in me somewhere because I think I sent about 5 emails to different friends ranting about how I had discovered this "awesome band from the middle of nowhere" and how I was "blown away by their instrumentals". Their sound is diverse with heavy instrumentals and doesn't feature any vocals apart from some electronic vocal samples (remind me a bit of Air). some tracks start out very smooth and chilled before breaking into some dramatic guitar riffs and drums. Some of their stuff is sad (in a lay on your bed and stare at the white ceiling kind of way), and some of it makes you want to turn to the person next to you and make out with them.

To my surprise I randomly read that they were set to play at the Hi Fi in West End on Friday night. I dragged my best friend along after I convinced her that we should do something else on a Friday night (other then knocking back G&T's on my deck). I think she was more interested in discovering what the "ambient shoegaze" genre sounded like (rather than breaking our usual habits) but she agreed which was great as they played a good set and I finally have a copy of their debut album Our Lines Are Down produced and mixed by band-members Kirk Harmer & Adrian Diery. The 10 track album is surprisingly very well packaged and the sound quality is pretty good considering the type of budget they would be on.


Here's a clip I stole from their MYSPACE page. And be sure to have a listen to my favourite track And A Whole Assortment Of Uppers.



Anyway to finish this reviewSLASHrant, THE HAZARDS OF SWIMMING NAKED are brilliant and more people should know about them.