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M. Gira / D. Matz | What We Did | Review
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erasingclouds.com | Dave Heatonpop music as meditation or philosophical explorationWhat We Did, a collaboration between Michael Gira of Angels of Light and Dan Matz of Windsor for the Derby, is pop music as meditation or philosophical exploration. The duo regard what they're playing as pop music, and they're right--the album is filled with lovely melodies and harmonies. Yet this is far from what your average person on the street thinks of as "pop." Everything's delivered in a dreamy way that reveals itself slowly. The vocals are part-sung part-chanted, and the heady, complicated lyrics alternate abstract poetics with musings on the mysteries of the world. There's a world of exploratory noises--plentiful percussion, whirs and beeps. And the album's captivating guitar-playing is of the free, open, mysterious sort. Indeed, this all is a mystery, a fascinating musical puzzle. "A link you can't define/a link you'll lose in time," Matz gently intones on the first track, "Pacing the Locks." Loss and forgetting recur as lyrical themes throughout, while the album as a whole exudes a sense of being hard to define. Its essence may be difficult to capture in words, but it will definitely stay with you.--...
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Angels of Light | How I Loved You | Review
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PopMatters | Jason ThompsonStill Life with Angels Subtlty. It's not really a word one would associate with Michael Gira. After all, his former band Swans created loud and angry albums that pushed the limits of not only their fans, but of the band members as well. Gira was used to taking it on the chin in the press for his music, his attitude, and his actions. But that's how he wanted to create his work. Hearing the sounds of Swans, one begins to wonder if Gira managed to exorcise all his demons. One may wonder that even more when listening to Gira and his new group Angels of Light on their second album, How I Loved You. Michael composed the songs over a couple years, and "as it turns out, they're all love songs, in one form or another", says Gira. However, one really shouldn't be surprised. It's not like this is a Wayne Newton album. You can't really come to "expect" anything obvious from Gira. Playing with Michael on the album are such notables as Siobhan Duffy on background vocals, Kid Congo Powers on electric guitar, Bliss Blood working over the saw and ukelele, Larry Mullins on a number......
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M. Gira / D. Matz | What We Did | Review
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erasingclouds.com | Dave Heatonpop music as meditation or philosophical explorationWhat We Did, a collaboration between Michael Gira of Angels of Light and Dan Matz of Windsor for the Derby, is pop music as meditation or philosophical exploration. The duo regard what they're playing as pop music, and they're right--the album is filled with lovely melodies and harmonies. Yet this is far from what your average person on the street thinks of as "pop." Everything's delivered in a dreamy way that reveals itself slowly. The vocals are part-sung part-chanted, and the heady, complicated lyrics alternate abstract poetics with musings on the mysteries of the world. There's a world of exploratory noises--plentiful percussion, whirs and beeps. And the album's captivating guitar-playing is of the free, open, mysterious sort. Indeed, this all is a mystery, a fascinating musical puzzle. "A link you can't define/a link you'll lose in time," Matz gently intones on the first track, "Pacing the Locks." Loss and forgetting recur as lyrical themes throughout, while the album as a whole exudes a sense of being hard to define. Its essence may be difficult to capture in words, but it will definitely stay with you.--...
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INTERVIEW WITH MGIRA FOR CHOLER.COM
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CHOLER.com"I suppose I just finally realized how self-defeating my technophobia was..."that I was denying myself and the other people I work with through Young God Records access to a large amount of people that might be interested in our music. This was no easy feat, for me. I didn't even have a credit card until a few months ago (in fact I didn't open my first bank acct until the age of 35!). I have just always had a disdain or suspicion of getting involved in systems which might ultimately lead to someone else having control over my life. But, with the options available to interesting, non-commercial music steadily shrinking, it became obvious that the net is/will be one of the most important ways to reach people around the world who might care about the music we release. As I say, now that there's several other groups on the label aside from myself and my own work with Angels of Light, I felt a responsibility to do the best for them that I could. So I took the plunge, got the credit card, maxed it out of course, got the computer, and soon made contact with ted matson, who's the......
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Flux Information Sciences | Private/Public | Review
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Flagpole Magazine | Emerson Dameron...the aural equivalent to spending your first acid trip getting your spleen ruptured... New York City: skyscrapers, subways and epidemic claustrophobia. The birthplace of hip hop and the headquarters of Flux Information Sciences, a ruthless noise/burlesque outfit whose latest platter Private/Public (Young God), is the aural equivalent to spending your first acid trip getting your spleen ruptured by an arcade full of recently anthropomorphized Centipede machines out for revenge. Word has it that FIS recorded Public/Private mostly live in the studio, allowing a select few friends and fans to attend the sessions on condition that they do so "naked, blindfolded, like lawn furniture made of flesh and not move." In this environment, the band laid down its frantically rhythmic and addictively disorienting brand of musical shadenfreude. The result deserves a dignified space on the spectrum between Swans' Greed and Naked City's Torture Garden. In the city so nice they named it twice, Keyboardist Sebastien Brault, drummer Derek Etheridge and Tristan Bechet (singer, guitarist, bassist and all-around go-to guy) are already famous for their theatrical, destructive live act. Here, where it's this easy to get catatonically bored with polite, head-nodding indie rock, it's all the more important......