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  • Swans | Soundtracks for the Blind | Review

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    The Equipment Authority | Kurt B. Reighleyan ambitious collage that folds found sounds, tape loops, and studio recordings into a dense aural melangeOften compared with Sonic Youth, Swans has consistently displayed greater stylistic diversity than its down-town N.Y.C. art-noise colleagues without deviating from frontman Michael Gira's singularly bleak vision. This, the band's last release (supposedly Swans is calling it quits), is no exception. It's an ambitious collage that folds found sounds, tape loops, and studio recordings into a dense aural melange. Soundtracks for the Blind eschews conventional verse/chorus/bridge structures, favoring experiments with timbre and juxtaposition instead. The 1-2-3 transition from the disorienting samples of "Her Mouth is Filled with Honey" into the churning rock repetitions of "Blood Section," followed by the twisted howl of "Hypogirl" (sung by longtime collaborator Jarboe), could prompt a case of whiplash. Testimonies from unspecified individuals, as in the unnerving "Minus Something," offset majestic instrumental interludes of cello, bells, guitar, and keyboards. Often the most captivating elements border on subliminal, such as the fax tones buried in "Red Velvet Corridor" or the organ accents of "I Love You This Much." The cumulative sensation of Soundtracks' disparate elements is akin to eavesdropping on dozens of psychotherapy sessions,......

  • Swans | Soundtracks for the Blind | Review

    ()

    CMJ | Jon FineCMJ February 1997 critic pick for the monthSoundtracks for the Blind is the final studio album from SWANS, and though it's impossible to imagine a document that could provide a summing up to their 15 years recorded output, this two-hour-plus double CD (budget priced and beautifully packaged) covers enough ground to serve as an apt final testament. The cast of characters here includes old-school SWANS Norman Westberg and Al Kizys as well as Vudi late of American Music Club. Like recent SWANS shows, Soundtracks for the Blind's peaks approach a religious intensity. The orchestral sweep and lyrical bent of "Helpless Child" and "The Sound" (which cumulatively clock in at almost 30 minutes) best exemplify the approach, but, like few other multi-disc sets, the whole coheres better than its individual parts. Strewn throughout the album are lengthy instrumental passages, sundry soundscapes and drone pieces, some of which bubble under recorded monologues—children's chants, the ruminations of an old man losing his sight—in a cliched-sounding combination that works much better than you'd expect. A tour will follow in early 1997, and it's hard to imagine anyone interested in the more adventurous aspects and history of the independent rock scene not......

  • Swans | Soundtracks for the Blind | Review

    ()

    Wired | Mitch MyersSwans bid us farewell with a recording of Homeric magnitudeAfter 15 years of making uncompromising music, the Swans bid us farewell with a recording of Homeric magnitude. Intense sonic assaults jut against gentle instrumentals; tape loops mesh raw feedback with the lost conversations of dead souls; samples are tucked between carvings of art and language. In 1950, Hinsie and Shatsky wrote: "Autistic material ... appear[s] as daydreams, phantasies, delusions, hallucinations, etc. In classical instances, such as occurs in schizophrenia, the unconscious sphere makes the largest contribution." This is the Swans' last studio album. Behold the daydream nation....

  • Swans | Soundtracks for the Blind | Review

    ()

    The Equipment Authority | Kurt B. Reighleyan ambitious collage that folds found sounds, tape loops, and studio recordings into a dense aural melangeOften compared with Sonic Youth, Swans has consistently displayed greater stylistic diversity than its down-town N.Y.C. art-noise colleagues without deviating from frontman Michael Gira's singularly bleak vision. This, the band's last release (supposedly Swans is calling it quits), is no exception. It's an ambitious collage that folds found sounds, tape loops, and studio recordings into a dense aural melange. Soundtracks for the Blind eschews conventional verse/chorus/bridge structures, favoring experiments with timbre and juxtaposition instead. The 1-2-3 transition from the disorienting samples of "Her Mouth is Filled with Honey" into the churning rock repetitions of "Blood Section," followed by the twisted howl of "Hypogirl" (sung by longtime collaborator Jarboe), could prompt a case of whiplash. Testimonies from unspecified individuals, as in the unnerving "Minus Something," offset majestic instrumental interludes of cello, bells, guitar, and keyboards. Often the most captivating elements border on subliminal, such as the fax tones buried in "Red Velvet Corridor" or the organ accents of "I Love You This Much." The cumulative sensation of Soundtracks' disparate elements is akin to eavesdropping on dozens of psychotherapy sessions,......

  • Swans | Soundtracks for the Blind | Review

    ()

    CMJ | Jon FineCMJ February 1997 critic pick for the monthSoundtracks for the Blind is the final studio album from SWANS, and though it's impossible to imagine a document that could provide a summing up to their 15 years recorded output, this two-hour-plus double CD (budget priced and beautifully packaged) covers enough ground to serve as an apt final testament. The cast of characters here includes old-school SWANS Norman Westberg and Al Kizys as well as Vudi late of American Music Club. Like recent SWANS shows, Soundtracks for the Blind's peaks approach a religious intensity. The orchestral sweep and lyrical bent of "Helpless Child" and "The Sound" (which cumulatively clock in at almost 30 minutes) best exemplify the approach, but, like few other multi-disc sets, the whole coheres better than its individual parts. Strewn throughout the album are lengthy instrumental passages, sundry soundscapes and drone pieces, some of which bubble under recorded monologues—children's chants, the ruminations of an old man losing his sight—in a cliched-sounding combination that works much better than you'd expect. A tour will follow in early 1997, and it's hard to imagine anyone interested in the more adventurous aspects and history of the independent rock scene not......

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