Those with a casual interest in post-punk tend to stop at the usual suspects: Joy Division, The Fall, The Gang of Four, PIL, Wire. But Swell Maps were just as influential as any of them even if the man on the street with his casual interest may never have heard anything by them.
It was great to catch up with Jowe Head, Swell Maps’ bassist for the duration of the band’s existence from 1972 to 1980. The two albums they produced, A Trip to Marineville and Jane from Occupied Europe can proudly take their place alongside Unknown Pleasures, Grotesque, Entertainment!, Metal Box and Chairs Missing in the Post-Punk Pantheon.
And please do buy a copy of Jowe’s excellently reviewed book “Swell Maps, 1772-1980” via the www.swellmaps.org website.
What struck me most about Jowe when we enjoyed a highly relaxed chat over Zoom one Sunday night was that he didn’t give a toss about fame and fortune so long as he could carry on writing, playing, painting, designing and fulfilling his artistic curiosity. He very much retains that late ‘70s DIY spirit. Thank you to Pinko Fowler for effecting the introductions.
As for Swell Maps’ legacy, here’s a few of the things very famous musicians have said about them:
"Slicing, slabbing and all out fuzzifying off that crackling vinyl groove … you know you're gonna rock. It's the best of both whirls: fist-in-the-heart guitar burnin’ rock and ahead-of-its-time songsmith awareness” (Thurston Moore, Sonic Youth)
"Swell Maps was a big influence on our early records ... they had these songs they fucked up somehow to make sound really dirty and low frequency, but they had these great songs underneath all this mess" (Scott Kannberg, Pavement)
"I must have played A Trip to Marineville a hundred times or more, just to listen to every single second of it" (Tim Gane, Stereolab)
“Swell Maps … where one crazy guy thinks he can make a record. The whole point … is that the vocals are distinctive, a bit weird, not exactly right, everything’s a little bit off. That’s part of the charm, that it’s not Pink Floyd-perfect. I’ve always been a fan of that DIY punk style. When Pavement started out it was basically as a tribute to Swell Maps, Desperate Bicycles, Television Personalities, really.” (Steven Malkmus, Pavement)
And here’s the tracks Jowe chose as being particularly influential on him (he also chose After the end of the world by Sun Ra, but unfortunately I was unable to find a suitable version of it to play. Do check Sun Ra out, nonetheless, a true maverick):
Tracklist:
The man who sold the world, David Bowie
Why are we sleeping, Soft Machine
The Be Colony, Broadcast and the Focus Group
Jennifer, Faust
Mother sun, Can
White chalk, P J Harvey
Nobody’s business, Peter Hammill
Submission, The Sex Pistols
Cripple creek, Buffy Saint Marie
Let’s build a car, Swell Maps