Ducktails – In the Swing. First of all, who can’t appreciate this little reminder of a great show many of us remember, DuckTales. Already winning points there, m’boy. And although man might consider “In the Swing,” just a brief intro into Ducktails’ recent album Ducktails III – Arcade Dynamics, but I find this piece to be one of my favorites. “In the Swing,” is built around a simple but catchy central hook, and shrouded in just enough fuzz to fill out the mix; providing an excellent example of how these songs inevitably sound like what they are—a boy in his room mixing music from a laptop.
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Musical imagery surrounds the listener–as if we were drifting on a sustained bed of haphazard vocal styling and droning percussion beat, bobbing aimlessly to the slow-motion underwater rhythms. Instead of vocals on this introductory piece, Ducktails utilizes a string of synth beats that offer melodic texture as well as subtle tambourine accompaniment. The form of the song is hypnotic, harkening very little change, as it was made to feel like a giant looping beat, free of sections and transitions. The tambourine and percussion against the synth lines interact cohesively to achieve this texture and aesthetic, working in close tandem.
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