Gig Review: Barry Can't Swim at Rough Trade

There seems to have been something of an explosion in excellent electronic music over the past few years. This might be my own taste catching up, but it can also be seen as a cultural product of the pandemic. Stuck in isolation and without the opportunity of jams and gigs, many musicians I know have learned to work solo, layer ideas, create weird little side projects and generally get into working digitally.

I came to know about Barry Can't Swim over the summer through a Spotify crawl, and - of course - it was the name that caught my eye. Where once I might have bought the occasional CD based off of an intriguing cover, I’ve recently gone down a hole of listening to a load of electronic artists and producers with wonderfully banal names like Fred Again or Ross From Friends, who I might mention are all great at turning already good tracks into gold. 

Slightly absurd, but strangely original, I immediately had to wonder who Barry was, why can’t he swim, and why he’d choose such a title as his nom de guerre.

Being signed to Technicolour Records seems appropriate, as Barry’s music is a bit like dipping your head into a kaleidoscope of colour. A mix of electronic house, jazz and world music, it’s a lovely fusion of endorphins, energy and the feeling of eating brightly coloured ice pops, in the sunshine, perhaps on a speedboat. Excellent for bringing me a good bit of vim, when I heard he was coming to Rough Trade in the thick of autumn I jumped at the chance to bring a little of that summer excess back in the deep of October.

I did wonder if a chilly Wednesday evening and the sun soaked spirit of songs like Sonder would be a bit of an odd juxtaposition, but against the monochrome interior of Rough Trade, a few neon lights and some excellent tunes were all that was needed to bring down the walls to give the vibe of a summery festival. With Barry clearly having a great time himself on the decks, the attendees too had most definitely left any midweek worries outside. It was one of those (sometimes rare) gigs where nobody is just standing about languidly tapping their feet - instead, there was dancing galore, and looking around the room you could tell everyone was getting a much needed dose of serotonin.

It turns out the London based producer is not actually called Barry, but whether he can actually swim or not I’ll never know. Sometimes artists are better with a little mystique. But if you are looking for some tunes to pull you out of the bleakness of winter, give you motivation while hoovering, or simply expand your music taste, I’d definitely recommend taking a listen to the latest album When Will We Land? and getting yourself a ticket next time he’s in town.

Barry Can't Swim performed at Rough Trade on 25 October 2023.