Swindle

Hailing from London, Cameron Palmer works under the name Swindle, shaping tracks across grime, dubstep, and garage that incorporate a strong funk presence. His detailed, layered sound reflects an enduring passion for music, above all jazz, soul, and hip-hop. Expansive albums such as the globally oriented Peace, Love & Music from 2015 and the Britain-centered No More Normal released in 2019 include contributions from British soul singer and songwriter Terri Walker as well as grime emcees P Money and Flowdan, while expressing an optimistic, unifying perspective.

Palmer spent his childhood in South London immersed in sound. His father, a blues guitarist, provided early lessons, and by age fourteen the young musician was already producing in a bedroom studio. Initial output under the Swindle name appeared on self-released mixtapes. The 2007 collection The 140 Mixtape presented numerous grime vocalists, among them No Lay, Big Narstie, and Ghetto (later Ghetts), performing over his beats. The instrumental disc Curriculum Vitae followed in 2009. After the 2010 self-released EP Who Said Funk, which featured Natalie May and Nadia Suliman, the Airmiles EP came out on Planet Mu; the producer had previously supplied a remix for a Terror Danjah EP on the same label. Further singles and EPs appeared on progressive grime and dubstep imprints including Butterz, Rwina, and Deep Medi Musik. Two 2012 releases, Do the Jazz and Forest Funk, underscored his leanings by displaying the impact of George Benson and Stevie Wonder more prominently than most other U.K. bass producers. His first proper album, Long Live the Jazz, surfaced on Deep Medi in 2013, blending dubstep rhythms with talk-box vocals and funky guitar lines. The album track “Running Cold,” featuring Terri Walker, received a remix from drum’n’bass pioneer Roni Size and appeared as a one-sided 10" single.

In 2014 Swindle joined Joker for a standalone single issued under the name 040. The next EP, the brassy Walter’s Call, arrived on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings. Returning to Butterz, the producer delivered his second album, Peace, Love & Music, in 2015; it incorporated appearances by reggae sound system Mungo’s Hi Fi, grime emcee JME, drum’n’bass producer TC, and many others. Three subsequent EPs—Connecta, Funk & Grime, and Purple Walls—were gathered as Trilogy in Funk for a 2017 Japan-only CD. Swindle handled production on Kojey Radical’s 2018 single “Water,” and the London vocalist in turn appeared on Swindle’s track “Coming Home.” That song featured on the Brownswood-issued full-length No More Normal in 2019, which also included Eva Lazarus, Daley, and Rider Shafique among numerous vocalists.