SWAMPY : RADIO SWAMPY

Here you�ll find some songs written and recorded on a four track in various bedrooms between Melbourne and Dunedin. No expense has been spared in using the most affordable equipment (this is not lo-tech but what is called sub-tech (subsistence technology) being the next level down. Instruments include drum machine, guitars, harmonicas, a small keyboard, accordion, as well as an occasional effects pedal and jar of rice. The challenge being to get this work to CD format in an 'acceptable' way for the punters. The recordings were mixed onto digital tape and from there engineer Tim Kitto added reverb. The final versions are pretty much as how they first started out.

RADIO SWAMPY : Influences

Sometimes you get asked what your influences are . . . well, I don't, but I can imagine that some media type person would ask, so here goes. Things I can think of that I've been influenced by when making this music. Bells and Heaven Hill (powers on special occasions), Harmonicas and Bass Guitars, Stirling Point, Moeraki, Colac Bay, Deer Flat. Sloppy Jazz and Scratchy Lee Perry Records. Manic Blather and Citizens of No Land. National Programme and the mess this countrys in. The road to Portobello. 'The Illuminated Dreamer' and Flann O'Brian. Hone Tuwhare and Hank Williams. Driving over the Lindis Pass at midnight humming Red River Valley. SWAMPY is another step in some sort of unpredictable path that I am on. I like writing and playing songs cos it seems like one of the only freedoms left - you can do and say what you want. I'm glad I've made an album so other people can hear this and maybe get something from it . . . It's not perfect but where I live and what goes on around me isn't either. It's confusing and hard to see the way ahead but it all seems to fit together somehow. There's some anger in the songs from whats going on and where this country is heading to but at the same time it cracks me up. Thats the great thing about music - its up to you. We hope SWAMPY will be around for some time to provide more original NZ music and social commentary, God knows we need it. And remember . . . The South Will Rise Again!

Many folk have asked me why this name? I�d reply why not! Maybe they thought there was some fascinating story behind my life based around a swamp, perhaps I was found abandoned in one as a baby! Nowadays I just make up some reason off the top of my head. At the moment I say its because I come from Southland where it's very swampy and there used to be a radio announcer called Boggy so I couldn't use that. I like and use sounds that you could call dank and misty, but thats stretching it a bit. Oh its also a name for a brand of 12 volt tractor battery. Whatever its a name thats stuck and at least if I get another band going it wont be called the G. W. Ramsay Experience.

SWAMPY : RADIO SWAMPY

Sinister machine like sounds underly a social commentator for the South on this Do-It-Yourself 4 track based bedroom extravaganza. I knew G W Ramsay of SWAMPY RADIO when he was all but a scruffy youth in the ghettos of the notorious Cannongate triangle. Here rooms never saw the sun, cars so rusty - nobody would steal them, and people so introverted that they turned themselves inside out. SWAMPY knows no boundaries, is frighteningly eclectic on stage, and one hell of a campfire DJ. The future past and present of hillbilly techno- funk meet in one smouldering campfire that is SWAMPY - hay bale funkster of the South.

RADIO SWAMPY : REVIEWS

NEW HORIZONS RADIO PROGRAMME : William Dart

Reviewer CHRIS KNOX has become synonymous with lo-tech rock in this country and now he has a challenge from the Deep South-on Dunedin's YELLOW EYE label. A disc titled RADIO SWAMPY, from a group titled SWAMPY which is, in fact, just one person, Grant Ramsey. Ramsey is a one-man band of keyboards, accordion, harmonica, guitar, percussion and drum machine and, of course, a faithful four-track to record it all on. He comes up with music that, if it had French lyrics, would almost fit in a chansonnier tradition, with a touch of LEONARD COHEN on the side - FLY AWAY - Grant Ramsay's Magic Carpet does take him on a few escapades, and the whole theme of ESCAPE is at the core of the SWAMPY album. Breaking forth in a fabulous career, being waylaid and trapped in the Wilderness, or writing a postcard from Melbourne in the song LOLA CROSS THE HARBOUR. Whereas it would be hard to imagine much of CRHIS KNOX's work as being intended for anything but Knox and omnichord or whatever he's backing himself on, it's not at all difficult to hear quite a sinewy rock song inside a number like LOLA. So now there's the next inevitable question. Is SWAMPY's sound purely the result of budgetary restraints or is there a wee bit of deconstruction - even 'mickey' taking - going on here. Grant Ramsey is certainly more of a style pillager than CHRIS KNOX . . . we're doled out a wee bit of reggae for the song TRAP IN THE WILDERNESS - funky ripples in 400 years of going out and good old pop in MYSTERY OF LOVE. This last one's a charmer. Ramsey's swooping melodic line and home-styled backing vocals make it, along with one crunchy moment where there is some harmonic disagreement within a chord - the perils of four-track overlays (MYSTERY OF LOVE).

THE NZ LISTENER : Nick Bollinger

Dunedin based troubadour with a four track writes witty commentaries on society, love, and discount shopping. His guitar, casio and drum machine provide more colour than one might expect.

NZ MUSICIAN : Jennifer Scott

SWAMPY is Dunedin based Grant Ramsay who has recorded this eclectic batch of songs - as many musicians have before - on a four track in his bedroom. Lucky for us this collection of funky, rootsy, poppy songs has come out of the bedroom and onto CD. With 15 tracks, it's value for money too. The album kicks off with the foot stompingly cool FLY AWAY and then delves into more funky beats with MY FABULOUS CAREER. The vocals sometimes sound as though they are being sung througha megaphone and this quirky lo-fi element is accentuated by including instruments such as the accordion. This sounds a bit like early, low key BECK with a laid back yet funky sound with elements of attention grabbing quirkiness. At other times there is a definite CHRIS KNOX feel to the songs, particularily on MYSTERY OF LOVE. Other songs such as NASTY PIECE OF BUSINESS have a dance feeling, where others such as CROW SONG are decidedly country style. This makes for a diverse sounding album that somehow gels together and is overall very cool. It is delightfully organic and not bogged down with over-production or by taking itself too seriously.

RIP IT UP : Shaun Catt

Has there been a more fitting name for a solo project than Grant Ramsay's choice of SWAMPY? Dredging through the muddy waters of the South Island's more sinister bogs and marshes, Ramsay's stumbled across a pile of old 80's instruments - casiotone, drum machine, accordion and praising his luck, he's taken them home, thrown them in the closet with his harmonica and guitars, and recycled for use on a rainy day. Opening with a mid-eastern KLEZMAR feel, Ramsay warms up with FLY AWAY which frolics along like a drunken lamb. He then dives into Southern blues, folk-country-reggae, spaced out experimental wierdness, Hawaiian shuffle, hillbilly techno funk and spacey electro, before finishing with a bit of Egyptian reggae-disco. This of course, could come across as a bit of a shambles. But it doesn't. It doesn't becuase the whole thing is held together by a groove with more pulling power than an All Black scrum (yeah I know they�re supposed to push, but haven't you seen the way they go backwards?) Ramsay's other great attribute is the way he can change character so quickly - CRUEL SEA on discount shopping, DAVID BYRNE on TRAP IN THE WILDERNESS, GEORGE THOROGOOD on BUS MAN'S HOLIDAY. Quite the regular chameleon. Hey, dont they live in swamps, do they?

O.U.S.A. CRITIC

The solo recording project of Grant Ramsay, a Southlander to the core, no instant or throwaway pop here more like a flowing well crafted, layered soundscape. Songs written and recorded on a 4 track in bedrooms between Melbourne and Dunedin during the 90's. Mixed onto digital tape with reverb fx added to get the work on its way to CD format. A real sub-tech D.I.Y. recording project (sub-tech being subsistence the next level down from lo-tech). No expense was spared here in using the most affordable equipment. Final versions of what you hear are pretty much as how they first started out. You'll hear sinister machine like sounds (wee keyboards, old drum machines) underlying a singer-songwriter providing social commentary backed up by harmonicas, accordion, fx pedals and good old standard guitars. There's a real rootsy country tinge to the songs, even a tad of Delta menace and what with the cheapo electronica hey its a real melting pot. With a name like SWAMPY you'd think there's some fascinating story behind the name unfortunately not. Grant wasn't abandoned as a child in a swamp but he does come from Southland and there used to be a radio announcer called Boggy and some of the sounds on this disc are dank and misty . . . Oh it's also a brand of 12 volt tractor battery by the way. Cheap is not necessarily nasty although it can be, yes there's anger in some of these songs to parallel whats going on in this country and where it is heading. SWAMPY is another step for Grant on life's unpredictable path, he likes writing and playing as it seems like one of the only freedoms left. It's confusing and hard to see the way ahead, all's not perfect, just as what is going on around him today, yet somehow it all seems to fit together. The South Will Rise Again!

OTAGO DAILY TIMES

SWAMPY, aka Grant Ramsay, has sojourned from his more Southern origins to introduce us to a back blocks broth of bubbles with home-grown invention, the flavours within both fermented and fresh. His self described 'Honkytronic' style (guitar, harmonica, piano accordion, drum machine and home organ are thrown in the gumbo to varying degrees) is put forth honestly via four track recorder then remixing at Dunedin's Strawberry Sound Studio, a process which has produced works sounding larger than expected given their relatively lo-fi origins. Fifteen songs for a debut album smacks of a song writer with no shortage of material. However, a dozen would have sufficed as a few tend to blend into a hodge-podge of skewed country riffs. That said, there are plenty of good moments. Working within a framework usually established by drum machine, Ramsay comes on strong with FLY AWAY, CROW SONG, MYSTERY OF LOVE and CELEBRATE. And nestled among the melody are sounds which seep and slither forth from a source well worth mining.