Barry Can't Swim

British producer Barry Can't Swim crafts buoyant, melody-driven house tracks that carry an undercurrent of wistfulness. Jazz, Afrobeat, and traditional pop songcraft all shape his approach, resulting in music that stays rhythmically propulsive while foregrounding strong melodic hooks and vocal fragments drawn from disparate global sources and styles. A string of independent singles paved the way for two EPs, one of which was the breakbeat-driven More Content in 2022, before the arrival of his debut album, When Will We Land?, in 2023.

Joshua Mainnie, born in Edinburgh, Scotland, received classical training and began piano studies at age nine, later taking jobs in jazz venues during his teenage years. At university he added guitar, bass, and drums to his instrumental palette, joined multiple bands, and completed an internship at the renowned Glasgow electronic imprint Soma Records. After relocating to London he turned his attention fully to electronic production, issuing his inaugural Barry Can't Swim track, “Because I Wanted You to Know,” in late 2019. The 2020 releases “Sunday at Glasto” and “Some Day I Will” brought wider attention to Mainnie’s singular, melody-centric dance sound. Shall Not Fade put out his debut EP, Amor Fati, in 2021, and Technicolour, a Ninja Tune subsidiary, followed with More Content the next year. Ninja Tune then released When Will We Land? in 2023, a collection of richly textured, detailed pieces that incorporate vocal samples from African, Brazilian, and Galician folk traditions.