Swell Maps

Influenced by the disparate likes of T. Rex and the German krautrock outfit Can, they created a new soundscape that would be heavily mined by others in the post-punk era. Despite existing in various forms since 1972, Swell Maps only really came together as a musical entity after the birth of British punk.

A collective consisting of Solihull based teenagers Epic Soundtracks (real name Kevin Paul Godfrey), his brother Nikki Sudden (real name Adrian Nicholas Godfrey), Jowe Head (Stephen Bird), Biggles Books (Richard Scaldwell), Phones Sportsman (David Barrington) and John "Golden" Cockrill, the band cut the single "Read About Seymour" as their debut in 1977. It is widely considered one of the classic punk era singles,[3] and is name-checked in the song "Part Time Punks" by Television Personalities.

After recording their first John Peel session Swell Maps went into WMRS studio to record their first album A Trip to Marineville, which was released in 1979. It featured hard rocking punk numbers like "H.S. Art" interspersed with ambient instrumentals and other experimental interludes like "Gunboats". The album went No. 1 on the new Independent chart.

The band cut one more album, The Swell Maps in 'Jane From Occupied Europe', in 1980: it featured a variety of genres, from collage-style experimental pieces like the opener "Robot Factory", fierce rockers like "Whatever Happens Next", the ballad-like "Cake Shop Girl", to the surf-type instrumental "Collision With A Frogman".

The band performed abroad for the first time in Belgium and the Netherlands, then toured Italy before splitting up in April 1980, then released an album of archive recordings: Whatever Happens Next....

Influence

Swell Maps have been cited as an influence by bands including Dinosaur Jr., R.E.M., Nirvana and Pavement. Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth acknowledged the influence of the Swell Maps in 1981, writing "As soon as that Nikki Sudden guitar comes slicing slabbing and all out fuzzifying off that crackling vinyl groove you know you’re gonna rock. It’s the best of both whirls: fist-in-the-heart guitar burnin’ rock and ahead-of-its-time songsmith awareness ... The Swell Maps had a lot to do with my upbringing". Scott Kannberg of Pavement acknowledged "Swell Maps was a big influence on our early records ... they had these songs they fucked up somehow to make sound really dirty and low frequency, but they had these great songs underneath all this mess".[9] Tim Gane of Stereolab recalled "When I first bought A Trip to Marineville I must have played it a hundred times or more, just to listen to every single second of it".

Studio Albums
A Trip to Marineville (July 1979)
Jane From Occupied Europe (1980)