HANGMAN by Dayton Swim Club | Mastering
Mastering. 2020
On Hangman, Dayton Swim Club invite you to follow them down. This is a record of “Darker Moves,” excursions into the seedier corners of what frontman Nick Flessa calls the “American Death Cult.” Paired with Matelson’s operatic vocals, Flessa offers reverb-soaked observations of a world at once futuristic and downtrodden, where the people are as empty as the strip malls. “I see you on the concrete floor, fingers in her dress,” he sings on “Pillow Talk,” over Luna’s twisted jangle pop. That song narrates a teen slasher revenge fantasy in which a cast-aside victim returns to haunt her killer. But the villain makes his own return on the follow-up song, “Night Breed,” where tolling piano and layers of atmosphere accompany a tormented confessional. These scenes are drawn from the Midwestern suburbs of Flessa’s youth and the Californian border town… more
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As a collaborative ensemble, Dayton Swim Club includes a number of Los Angeles musicians, Kirsten Bladh (Leggy) and Jessica Perelman (Fragile Gang) are regulars on bass and drums. Other collaborators on this record include Pauline Lay, J.D. Carrera, and Greg Marino (Oozelles), Kern Haug (Young Jesus), Ross Chait (Total Heat, Girlpool), John Dowd (Bible Belt), and John German (Laura Jean Anderson) have all contributed to the band’s live show. Formerly known as Nick Flessa Band, Dayton Swim Club emerged as Mario Luna, Dominique Matelson, Jessica Perelman and Nick Flessa began to write together after touring in support of Flessa’s Flyover States LP.