My thoughts on “Evening Breeze” the latest digital single from SZWARC.

Release Date: April 28th 2021

Tracklist

1. Evening Breeze
2. Sweet Escape

I cover a lot of Rock, Metal, Hardcore and other such genres on the site as you might have noticed if you’ve been around for a while now. Mainly that’s because those are genres that I’m into and also because the groups involved are putting out some of the more interesting material in the Idol scene currently. That’s waning a little bit recently (in my opinion) but it’s giving me reason to get out of my comfort zone a bit more and check out some different stuff from different groups and producers.

It’s only recently that I’ve begun to delve into the Tapestok Records catalog of music, though I have of course heard of and loosely followed the label for a number of years now. None of their groups really caught my ear too much though until recently with the debut of SZWARC and their take on the very popular Hip-Hop/Chill-Hop style that has been taking Japan by storm for a year or two now. I don’t know why but I really like the vibe of this genre despite it not being something I’ve ever really had an interest in until maybe a year or so ago. Well, here we are I guess.

“Evening Breeze” is SZWARC’s newest single and their first since the departure of R1o and the joining of new member Risky Heartbreak…okay then. It features 2 tracks as you can all see above and from what I can tell they seem to be carrying on with the sort of style that they were going for with their debut single “Emotion” (review here). I believe there was a venue limited EP between then and now but you guys know how that sort of thing goes, so this is my first time really checking back in on the group since that last article. Hopefully they’ve brought some good material with them but I think that’s probably safe to assume honestly. Though I suppose there really is only one way to find out so let’s take a listen shall we?

The title track teases us with a bit of a string section early on but you can kinda tell that it wasn’t ever where the track was fully going to end up. The “Yeah Yeah”s and what have you that have that Rap tone to them were also a pretty big hint too I suppose. Anyway, a beat is eventually introduced over the top of the existing instrumental which retreats to play more of a supportive role and things really start to find their rhythm. Quite literally in fact and I have to say that I really like how smooth and and warm the instrumental ends up being on this song. It’s something we’ve heard a bit of from SZWARC before previously and this is another great example of what is a rather popular style currently in Pop music. Granted the arrangement is fairly straightforward and repetitive in nature but that’s pretty much what you should expect from this genre typically and let’s face it, the stars of the show here are supposed to be the vocals. They shine pretty brightly too by the way, some really nicely rapped parts and a lot of rich, warm vocal tones all over the place to really drive home the atmosphere of the track. Catchy hooks and all 3 members bring their own personalities to their parts so plenty of variety on show as well. Pretty easy to recommend this one to anybody out there who happens to be a fan of that chilled out Hip-Hop style that we’ve been hearing a lot of in recent years.

B-side “Sweet Escape” carries on the chillout vibe, but despite its name I personally find this one to be a bit more on the abrasive side at least as far as my ears are concerned anyway. The vocoding on the vocals and the scratchier elements of the synthesizer instrumental seem to be a bit at odds with the softer, more melodic components of the track and I’m not totally sure they’ve struck the best balance that they could. Granted this is clearly supposed to be a much more upbeat number and it’s easier to hear that both in terms of the tempo as well as the more dynamic nature of the synths and beats that they’re putting down here and the vocals too are a bit more powerful and emotion heavy, even underneath that very healthy layer of vocoding that they’ve got going on. Much like the previous song, all 3 members bring different personalities and vocal talents to the track and it makes for a plenty interesting listen as long as you don’t let the vocoding put you off too much, and it can be a lot in places for sure. This one definitely feels more like something that you would bump in the club as opposed to play on the radio while you’re cruising with the roof down on a summer afternoon but this is kinda like the other side of what SZWARC are and it’s not like it’s some crazy new direction the group is taking either. Different strokes for different folks and all that, but it certainly seems like SZWARC are trying to cater to as wide an audience for their style as possible.

On the whole I liked “Evening Breeze” quite a bit as a single, though for me personally I definitely vibe better with the title track than I do with the b-side. Both are great at doing what they’re doing though and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed at all if you enjoy the genres that the group are pulling influences from here. Probably not going to do too much for you if you’re mainly into Metal, Hardcore or anything like that though. That said, hey why not give them a shot anyway? You never know.

Yeah man, if SZWARC want to put out new material a little bit more often then they’ll definitely have my ear whenever it happens. I know COVID, line-up changes and all that have probably held things up a bit more than they wanted but hopefully the group can continue to build from this point on as there’s definitely a ton of potential for some fairly decent mainstream success with this project I think. Just one man’s opinion though, I’ll let their music speak for itself I think.