WORDS
NYC-based keyboardist Anton Sword leads an indie synth/ dance/ new wave project with a shifting band lineup. Sword has toured the Eastern USA twice and Europe 10 times, playing for a small but loyal following. One of his ambient compositions runs in a loop on permanent display in Manhattan’s American Museum of Natural History, scoring the ‘Astro Bulletin’ in the lobby of the Rose Space Center.
Sometimes a record can move you to different places and times. It happens in a mood or a well-placed hook or the tone and timbre of a passage. Anton Sword is good at invoking time and place in his music. The time is the late 1980's, the place is a basement in the suburbs where vaguely displaced teens hang out and listen to Robert Smith & The Cure or some other mildly depressed but incredibly talented band. A Sentimental Education draws heavily on that 1980's new wave/goth vibe, yet weaves influences as disparate as 1970's keyboard work and even some electronic enhancements…A Sentimental Education is dark and scintillating and full of texture imbued with an anachronistic melancholy. Anton Sword is a storyteller with an artist's ear for music, constructing these vast musical landscapes against which his bard's tales are told. Many of the songs here segue one into the other almost like an epic tale made of smaller stories. The overall effect is very entertaining yet mellow. The musicianship here is outstanding. The production values are minimalist and highly appropriate for the music. The music speaks for itself here in the ultimate act of artistic bravery. It works.
—Wildy’s World Music Blog
Anton Sword has taken his sweet time, but now the urban troubadour is back with Numbody, an EP of strong songs in which every note and every sound is perfectly placed.
The rich and careful production of the record also reveals some of this versatile musician’s influences and inspirations: Here a touch of the Beatles, there a beat reminiscent of funk soundtracks from the 1970s, then heavy synths that would delight Gary Numan, replaced by vocal harmonies that could not have been finer spun by Roxy Music.
All the while, the music is original, and very “New York”: In these strange times of limited travel, it offers an aural journey through the streets and the scenes of the city as we know and miss it.
Should you ever have forgotten what a beautiful ballad is, or what a finely crafted good pop song sounds like, Anton Sword will show you.
—Roman Elsener, Swiss News Agency New York
Does Anton Sword actually know how cool he is? Numbody sounds like Barry Adamson on the wagon; Leading to Ledge like Kraftwerk with guest vocals by Josh Homme. And Symphony for Bird and Gun makes me want to go night clubbing. Where? At The Cooler in 1996. But what's best about Anton Sword's music is that you never know what to expect next. Death Disco? Easy Metal? A musical? We’ll see!
—Frank Heer, Writer