BEAUTIFUL SWIMMERS
The art of DJing is a nebulous and malleable thing, but most of us step into clubs weekend after weekend hoping for some kind of stability amidst the world's disjointedness. And that's why the importance of the DJ can never really be overstated. The best DJs, the ones who leave you slack-jawed and breathless, are the ones that truly understand just how important they are in shaping the time we spend away from work, away from the world.
They take the ostensibly dark, disorienting environs of nightclubs and make them inviting, enveloping, coherent places for the world's weirdest and most unwelcome. Through years of dedication to the culture, unwavering commitment to their craft, and an unimaginably diverse record collection, DJs Andrew Field-Pickering and Ari Goldman perfectly embody these virtues.
The pair first met in Washington, DC as teenagers—after their bands played a show together—and were raised on the city's thriving punk and hardcore scene. Separately, they've both spent the past decade releasing music as Max D (Field-Pickering) and Manhunter (Goldman), but it wasn't until they started DJing as Beautiful Swimmers in 2009 that the pair emerged as the leading club culture proponent in Washington DC's close-knit music scene. This "punk" spirit has seen them operate as champions of the fringes, playing music that surfs across genre boundaries and largely playing intimate parties with like-minded artists and promoters, from Mister Saturday Night, to Pender Street Steppers, to Shanti Celeste.
They smashed festivals from Dekmantel to Gottwood, played otherworldly radio sessions everywhere from NTS to Radio 1, and dropped the most roof-raising and diverse RA mix in recent memory—jumping wildly from forgotten UK garage jams to deep house grooves. As the B2B becomes an increasingly commodified trope in club culture—utilized broadly to pad out festival lineups with as many names as possible—Beautiful Swimmers also showcase the transformative power collaborative selectors can have when they get it right. The pair most likely don't consider themselves a B2B in the conventional sense—they're certainly not a "celebrity pairing" of two individually recognised names—but as the world outside becomes more fractured, their friendship and seamless cooperation remains a source of hope.
CATCH BEAUTIFUL SWIMMERS IN 'FANKLUB IN THE FOREST' AT KLUB DRAMATIK FESTIVAL 2020
BEAUTIFUL SWIMMERS
The art of DJing is a nebulous and malleable thing, but most of us step into clubs weekend after weekend hoping for some kind of stability amidst the world's disjointedness. And that's why the importance of the DJ can never really be overstated. The best DJs, the ones who leave you slack-jawed and breathless, are the ones that truly understand just how important they are in shaping the time we spend away from work, away from the world.
They take the ostensibly dark, disorienting environs of nightclubs and make them inviting, enveloping, coherent places for the world's weirdest and most unwelcome. Through years of dedication to the culture, unwavering commitment to their craft, and an unimaginably diverse record collection, DJs Andrew Field-Pickering and Ari Goldman perfectly embody these virtues.
The pair first met in Washington, DC as teenagers—after their bands played a show together—and were raised on the city's thriving punk and hardcore scene. Separately, they've both spent the past decade releasing music as Max D (Field-Pickering) and Manhunter (Goldman), but it wasn't until they started DJing as Beautiful Swimmers in 2009 that the pair emerged as the leading club culture proponent in Washington DC's close-knit music scene. This "punk" spirit has seen them operate as champions of the fringes, playing music that surfs across genre boundaries and largely playing intimate parties with like-minded artists and promoters, from Mister Saturday Night, to Pender Street Steppers, to Shanti Celeste.
They smashed festivals from Dekmantel to Gottwood, played otherworldly radio sessions everywhere from NTS to Radio 1, and dropped the most roof-raising and diverse RA mix in recent memory—jumping wildly from forgotten UK garage jams to deep house grooves. As the B2B becomes an increasingly commodified trope in club culture—utilized broadly to pad out festival lineups with as many names as possible—Beautiful Swimmers also showcase the transformative power collaborative selectors can have when they get it right. The pair most likely don't consider themselves a B2B in the conventional sense—they're certainly not a "celebrity pairing" of two individually recognised names—but as the world outside becomes more fractured, their friendship and seamless cooperation remains a source of hope.
CATCH BEAUTIFUL SWIMMERS IN 'FANKLUB IN THE FOREST' AT KLUB DRAMATIK FESTIVAL 2020