Loops From the Bergerie

AMG Review of Loops From the Bergerie

John Bush
All Music Guide

Retired to a chateau in the French Alps (the Grande Bergerie of the title), Swayzak peered down from their high perch and presently gave the world a record that sounds much less dirty than Dirty Dancing, much less detailed than Himawari, and much less sublime than their debut classic, Snowboarding in Argentina. Encompassing several vocal collaborations with Richard Davis of the band's 240 Volts label (as well as two vocals from Swayzak's own David Brown), Loops From the Bergerie includes little of substance, only a few straight-ahead dance-vocal productions with a bare few hooks. Davis reveals a small talent for post-millennial songwriting, but unfortunately there is little for his voice -- influenced by Robert Wyatt and David Bowie -- to cling to on his first two features, "Another Way" and "My House." (The third, "Speak Easy," wears a threadbare coat apparently tailored by Marilyn Manson.) The ineffable production sense that Brown and James Taylor have brought to all of their Swayzak releases is only occasionally visible, and only on an instrumental such as "Bergerie." Oddly, it's not the vocals themselves that are the problem; Swayzak haven't gone pop in a mad bid for commercial stardom. The problem on Loops From the Bergerie is essentially the unneeded tempering of Swayzak's production finesse to facilitate those vocals.