Let’s get the important things out of the way. Swimming With Ghosts is an instrumental band, consisting of guitars, bass, drums, piano, and some electronics. Ok, so that might not be the most amazing thing you’ve heard, but consider this: Swimming With Ghosts is also only a two-piece. Based in the US musical hotbed, from a UK perspective anyway, of Seattle, Swimming With Ghosts is Nick Brandt (guitars, bass, keys) and Michael Lerner (drums, keys), and their second album deserves to make some waves in the instrumental scene.

So, they’re only a two piece then…”big deal” some of you will be saying. But is a big deal when you hear the music that these two people make. It ranges from beautiful chiming guitars one minute, to blues infused rock the next; a gentle piano drives a dark, ominous ambience, which spread across five tracks, totalling a respectable 35 minutes of music.

The opening track, ‘Nothing Bleeds Like a Head Wound,’ starts with a melodic guitar riff before switching to a heavy chugging tempo, with keys and a screeching guitar over the top of the rhythm, and it builds into a welcome crescendo. The sound is so large and complete that you’d be mistaken for it being made by a five piece, not merely two guys with a lot of talent and time on their hands. ‘We Are The Fire’ follows much of the same route, starting slowly before building into something quite unexpected, this time a blues-riff inspired jam, that really takes the listener by surprise.

It’s the element of surprise that keeps you interested in The One with Broken Wings , as each listen reveals a new aspect of the album, as each track is layered so intricately with different parts. Whether it be the haunting drones in ‘Nothing Bleeds Like A Head Wound’, the cowbell in ‘We Are The Fire’, or the twinkling piano in ‘The One With Broken Wings’, there’s always something hidden deeper inside. ‘Cursed Nightmares’ stands out from the rest of the album as it’s a sombre piano piece that features no guitars. It begins as something that wouldn’t be out of place on a School Of Emotional Engineering album, before adding some strings and electronics that wouldn’t sound out of place in a 1980s horror film. It also adds to a welcome break from the guitar based tracks, as their quiet/loud dynamic gets a little bit predictable at times, but that’s really the only criticism that can be levelled at SWG. Title track ‘The One With Broken Wings’ is a fitting way to end the album, as within it’s 9 minutes and 15 seconds it encompasses everything that you’ve managed to learn about SWG so far from the album. It has memorable guitar hooks, chugging riffs, quiet breakdowns, and enough variation to keep the listener interested.

The One With Broken Wings isn’t a revolutionary album in any shape or form, but it is highly enjoyable, and becomes a lot more interesting when you consider that only two people made the music. I’ve got no idea how Swimming With Ghosts manage to pull this off live, whether it’s backing tracks galore or friendly session musicians, but on record they have managed to create a varied work that doesn’t really lend itself to comparison with any peers. There are moments of Dischord era guitar work a laTe, heavy chugging like Pelican andDisappearer, and moments of beauty straight out ofMogwai and Mono, but all in all, this is something that two talented people from Seattle have created, and we should be thankful for that.

-James Ould