| "Swamp Thing" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Single bythe Grid | ||||
| from the albumEvolver | ||||
| Released | 23 May 1994 (1994-05-23) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 3:56 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Songwriters |
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| Producer | The Grid | |||
| The Grid singles chronology | ||||
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| Music video | ||||
| "Swamp Thing" onYouTube | ||||
"Swamp Thing" is a song by British electronic music groupthe Grid, released as a single on 23 May 1994 byDeconstruction andRCA Records. It was also included on the group's third album,Evolver (1994). The song peaked at number three on theUK,Australian, andDanish singles charts and reached the top five in an additional seven countries, including Finland and Norway, where it reached number two. Its computer generated music video, consisting of dancing robots and a crawling baby, received solid airplay on music television channels. The song was later sampled in "Banjo Thing" byInfernal and "Swamp Thing" byPegboard Nerds. British magazineNME ranked "Swamp Thing" number 41 in their list of the 50 Best Songs of 1994 and it was nominated in the category for Tune of the Year at the International Dance Awards 1995.[2][3]
"When we played it atMinistry of Sound with Roger, there was a girl at the front staring at his banjo like she'd never seen one before."
The Grid formed in 1988, afterDave Ball andRichard Norris had worked withPsychic TV on the 1990 albumJack the Tab – Acid Tablets Volume One, which would later be described as "Britain's firstacid house record".[5] "Swamp Thing" was made after Ball foundbanjo playerRoger Dinsdale in an Irish pub inMarylebone and asked him to come to the studio. Dinsdale was afolk musician who also played theguitar and themandolin.[6] The Grid got him to lay down some riffs written by himself over a bassline and drumbeat. No digital was used apart from computers, so the group had this massive tape loop spliced together, running all over the studio.[4] Dinsdale died in July 2009.[6]
Norris told in a 2024-interview, "'Swamp Thing' was meant to be joyous and immediate for the dancefloor, but we also knew that a banjo house record would piss off the people who were writing long, boring articles about so-called "intelligenttechno".Mike Pickering fromM People gave it the dancefloor seal of approval when he played it atThe Haçienda inManchester. The duo then performed at theRadio 1 roadshow inCleethorpes, which led to "Swamp Thing" being included on their playlist. The single ended up going to number three on the UK Singles Chart, staying in the charts for 17 weeks over the summer and autumn of 1994.[4] It is almost completely instrumental, consisting mainly of:drums,synthesizer sounds andbanjo. The only vocals areWell alright, watch out,Feel alright andI just dig it, sampled from the 1973reggae song "Papa Do It Sweet" by Lloyd & Patsy.[7]
Music writer and columnistJames Masterton wrote, "I can detect a theme developing here over who can make the best dance record out of the silliest original idea. As ifDoop wasn't bad enough we now havethe Grid moving away fromambient dub and scoring their biggest hit ever with a dance track based on abanjo reel." He added that it "actually is quite inspired".[8] Holly Barringer fromMelody Maker complimented "Swamp Thing" as "a cheeky little number" and "a kind ofDeliverance withdisco up its butt", concluding, "You can't help but squeal like a pig at the sheer foot-tappingness of the darn thing."[9] Maria Jimenez fromMusic & Media constated that the group "storms through Europe with their banjo-ignited stormer".[10] Andy Beevers fromMusic Week'sRM Dance Update said, "Part Two of the Grid's US travelogue takes us east fromTexas [with their 1993 single "Texas Cowboys"] to the Deep South, where they successfully set frantic banjo picking against uptempohouse beats to create a high energy hoe down."[1] He also declared it as "a mad banjo and house hybrid [that] works surprisingly well."[11]
AnotherRM editor,James Hamilton, described it as "a breezy progressive throbber" in his weekly dance column.[12] Ben Willmott fromNME 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. Roll on the kazoo-gabber crossover."[13]NME editor John Mulvey felt "Swamp Thing" "is veteran techno-esoterics the Grid's latest whimsical sonic journey; a long, fierce trip intoDeliverance country that mixes square dance-friendly banjos with the kind of sleek trance disco perfected byUnderworld andFluke. A bit of a novelty — all that finger-picking nonsense gets royally on your tits after a while — but endearing enough in its own backwoods, inbred, rabble-rousing redneck way."[14] The magazine's Paul Moody named it a "brain-denting belter".[15]Mark Frith fromSmash Hits deemed the song a highlight of the album.[16]
"Swamp Thing" reached number two in Finland, Norway and Scotland. It was a top-10 hit in Austria, Belgium, Denmark,[17] Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. On theEurochart Hot 100, it hit number four on 3 September 1994.[18] In the UK, the single peaked at number three during its fifth week on theUK Singles Chart, on 26 June.[19] It also reached number one onMusic Week's Dance Singles chart.[20] Additionally, "Swamp Thing" was a top-20 hit in Germany and a top-50 hit in France. Outside Europe, "Swamp Thing" reached number three in Australia as well as on theRPM Dance/Urban chart in Canada. It also peaked at number 41 in New Zealand. The single was awarded with asilver record in the UK with a sale of 200,000 copies and aplatinum record in Australia, after 70,000 units were sold.
"Swamp Thing" was accompanied by a music video. The video switches back and forth between two scenes:computer-generated imagery of a group ofrobots dancing to a techno beat and a blank white landscape with a crawlingbaby and music synthesiser instruments. The scene with the baby and the instruments also inspired theEvolver album cover art. The video receivedheavy rotation onMTV Europe and was A-listed on Germany'sVIVA.[21][22] Later it was made available byVevo onYouTube, and as of May 2025, the video had generated more than 3.2 million views on the platform.[23]
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Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
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| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[45] | Platinum | 70,000^ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[54] | Silver | 200,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
| Region | Date | Format(s) | Label(s) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 23 May 1994 |
| [55] | |
| Australia | 18 July 1994 |
| [56] |
