Jack Swango and Hutchy Swango make up Haxby Swango.
York-based electronic duo Haxby Swango are set to release their first free-to-download EP, Banana Songs.
The people who make up this relatively new band band go by the names of Hutchy Swango and Jack Swango, previous founders of the progressive rock group Astrae. Now they’re creating a mixture of disco and hip hop influenced music with pop choruses.
They came together as Haxby Swango following the split of Astrae in 2014 and played their first performance during November.
Influencing the three tracks that make up ‘Banana Songs’ is music from Hutchy and Jack’s youth: a mixture of hard dance, hard rock and rap.
Hutchy said of Banana Songs: “This whole EP gives a very colourful picture of what this band is about and it’s a very strong foot forward for us.”
R&B, electro-house and J Pop
It starts out with a track called 5Deep, in which Hutchy says he was aiming to make one part sound like world music, another more like American R&B and then add in a dash of electronic rock.
The next is called Raindance, which Jack says was influenced heavily by anime and J-pop.
Lastly, Bye Bye…Explode combines R&B, electro-house and hard dance. The duo say that it has been a long process developing this track – it started out rather different and was re-done after they gained more experience as music producers.
Looking at the cover art, you can’t help but wonder if it’s meant to look like a psychedelic version of the cover of The Velvet Underground and Nico album designed by Andy Warhol.
Those who want to download Banana Songs can do so via Haxby Swango’s Soundcloud from February 23rd.
If you want a sample of what’s to come, here’s the opening track 5Deep with some visuals to go with it: