Swindle

Londoner Cameron Palmer, better known as Swindle, produces grime, dubstep, and garage with a heavy dose of funk. His rich, intricate productions reflect a life-long love of music, particularly jazz, soul, and hip-hop. Ambitious full-lengths including the globetrotting Peace, Love & Music (2015) and the more U.K.-centric No More Normal (2019) feature guest vocalists such as British soul singer/songwriter Terri Walker and grime emcees P Money and Flowdan, and convey a hopeful, world-uniting outlook. Palmer grew up in South London and was constantly surrounded by music. His father was a blues guitarist who gave him lessons at an early age, and he began making music in his bedroom studio at the age of 14. His debut releases as Swindle came in the form of self-released mixtapes. 2007′s The 140 Mixtape featured a wide range of grime vocalists, such as No Lay, Big Narstie, and Ghetto (later known as Ghetts), rhyming over Swindle’s productions. This was followed by the 2009 instrumental disc Curriculum Vitae. Following a 2010 self-released EP titled Who Said Funk, which featured vocalists including Natalie May and Nadia Suliman, Swindle’s Airmiles EP was released by Planet Mu. (The producer had contributed a remix to a Terror Danjah EP issued by the label during the previous year.) Swindle continued releasing singles and EPs on forward-thinking grime and dubstep labels like Butterz, Rwina, and Deep Medi Musik, with two 2012 efforts, Do the Jazz and Forest Funk, pointing to his musical inclinations, exhibiting the influence of George Benson and Stevie Wonder more than most other U.K. bass producers. Swindle’s proper debut album, Long Live the Jazz, arrived on Deep Medi in 2013, marrying dubstep rhythms with talk-box vocals and funky guitar licks. Terri Walker-featuring album cut “Running Cold” was remixed by drum’n’bass pioneer Roni Size and issued as a one-sided 10” single. In 2014, Swindle and Joker released a one-off single under the name 040. Swindle’s next EP, the brassy Walter's Call, arrived courtesy of Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings. The producer returned to Butterz for his second full-length, 2015′s Peace, Love & Music, which included appearances from reggae sound system Mungo's Hi Fi, grime emcee JME, drum’n’bass producer TC, and numerous others. The album was followed by a trio of EPs (Connecta, Funk & Grime, and Purple Walls) that were compiled as Trilogy in Funk for a 2017 Japan-only CD release. Swindle produced Kojey Radical’s 2018 single “Water,” and the London-based vocalist appeared on Swindle’s single “Coming Home.” The latter song appeared on Swindle’s Brownswood-issued 2019 full-length No More Normal, which also featured Eva Lazarus, Daley, and Rider Shafique, among many other vocalists. ~ Paul Simpson