Overview
"Swamp Thing" is a song by British electronic music group the Grid, released on 23 May 1994 by Deconstruction as a single and is included on the group's third album, Evolver (1994). The song peaked at number three on the UK, Australian, and Danish singles charts and reached the top five in an additional seven countries, including Finland and Norway, where it reached number two. It was later sampled in "Banjo Thing" by Infernal and "Swamp Thing" by Pegboard Nerds. British magazine NME ranked it number 41 in their list of the 50 Best Songs of 1994.
Content
"Swamp Thing" is almost completely instrumental, consisting mainly of: drums, synthesizer sounds and banjo. The only vocals are Well alright, watch out, Feel alright and I just dig it, sampled from the 1973 reggae song "Papa Do It Sweet" by Lloyd & Patsy. The banjo part was written and performed by Roger Dinsdale – a folk musician who also played the guitar and the mandolin. Dinsdale died in July 2009.
Critical reception
Music writer and columnist James Masterton wrote, "I can detect a theme developing here over who can make the best dance record out of the silliest original idea. As if Doop wasn't bad enough we now have the Grid moving away from ambient dub and scoring their biggest hit ever with a dance track based on a banjo reel." He added that it "actually is quite inspired". Holly Barringer from Melody Maker complimented "Swamp Thing" as "a cheeky little number" and "a kind of Deliverance with disco up its butt", concluding, "You can't help but squeal like a pig at the sheer foor-tappingness of the darn thing." Maria Jimenez from Music & Media constated that the group "storms through Europe with their banjo-ignited stormer". Andy Beevers from Music Week'''s RM Dance Update commented, "Part Two of the Grid's US travelogue takes us east from Texas [with their 1993 single "Texas Cowboys"] to the Deep South, where they successfully set frantic banjo picking against uptempo house beats to create a high energy hoe down." He also declared it as "a mad banjo and house hybrid [that] works surprisingly well."
Another editor, James Hamilton, described it as "a breezy progressive throbber." Ben Willmott from NME named it Single of the Week, writing, "Bonkers cowpunk disco of the highest order from the vastly underrated Texas cowboys. No need for reams of descriptive prose here — "Swamp Thing" is the first and last word in banjo house and, more to the point, it's damn good fun too.
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).