Barry Can’t Swim is a bold, colourful, impetuous voice in electronic music. Across a flurry of vital, cutting edge tracks he’s been able to blend club sounds with organic aspects, an outer-national approach that fuses house with afrobeat productions and jazz. From breakout EP ‘Amor Fati’ to club bangers such as 2022’s ‘Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore’, the producer has darted from style to style, all held together by that gleefully infectious approach. Incoming debut album ‘When Will We Land?’ finds Barry Can’t Swim switching it up once more – daringly ambitious, it’s also carefully finessed. His boldest statement yet? Don’t doubt it.
Club culture entered his life as a student. Enrolling at Edinburgh Napier University, he matched his lectures to late night club sessions at seminal electronic dugouts such as Cabaret Voltaire and Sneaky Pete’s. “It wasn’t just about clubbing,” he points out. “There’s a real sense of community. You’d go to after-parties, and meet people who were doing interesting things – like running nights, or they had their own labels. I was really involved in all of that.”
Initially placing some tunes on SoundCloud, the producer was stunned by the response. Something about his music simply connected with people – the melodies, the hooks, and the technicolour energy. Drawn into the orbit of seminal British label Ninja Tune, he’s now ready to unleash his debut album. A totemic moment in his life, it’s not something he’s taking lightly. “I put a lot of dedication and finesse into this,” he says. “It’s my debut album, something that I’m going to listen to personally and reflect on. So I knew it needed time and dedication.”
