PRESS » SWANS
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Under the Radar Magazine | "To Be Kind" Review
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Only when it's too late do you realize that "Screen Shot," the opening track on Swans' new magnum opus, is the sound of being stalked. Michael Gira begins calmly uttering a string of seemingly random words, and as they begin to take on a dark logic, his demeanor is that of one who has all the time in the world. By the end of the piece, the room seems drained of oxygen as the music has grown as a shrill, pounding presence and Gira's mantra becomes more direct: "Love now/Breathe now/Hear now." The nine lengthy works contained in the 2-CD/3-LP To Be Kind require an investment of attention. But as with any engrossing film, time isn't a factor, and a full immersion reveals that any abridgments would have lessened these songs' impact. Moods and settings are carefully established, and as each track unfolds, it's never immediately evident whether the conclusion of any given odyssey will more likely be lyrically or viscerally climactic, or both. All bets are off with the half-hour "Bring the Sun/Toussaint L'Ouverture," as the band begins a repetitive pummeling in its first few seconds and doesn't let up for a full two minutes. It's like starting a song with its closing......
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Time Out New York | Swans Feature
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There’s no obvious explanation for Swans’ sudden popularity among hip young connoisseurs of left-field rock music. Formed circa 1982, gone by 1997 and revived in 2010, the NYC art-noise behemoth attracted its largest audiences yet with a sprawling 2012 triple LP (The Seer), unrelenting two-hour gigs, and a lack of regard for both commercial relevance and bankable nostalgia. Granted, the band now executes its signature bludgeoning locksteps with a more groove-oriented, less monochromatic feel, but the overall vibe remains stubbornly grand, physical and excessive. Which isn’t to say that Swans’ sound hasn’t evolved. Brassy synth blasts, textural guest vocals from Annie “St. Vincent” Clark and slinking rhythms that breathe like never before are just some of the new wrinkles in the band’s latest 121-minute colossus, the ironically titled To Be Kind. Still propelled by the sextet’s trademark thundering percussion and screech-guitar crescendos, the record comes across as an ecstatic exercise in the bleakest, stormiest psychedelia imaginable. Onstage, Swans’ megaton drones emerge as deafening rituals. Frontman Michael Gira roars into the ether and saturates his shirt with sweat; a leonine guy named Thor hammers tubular bells and a gong; and—age be damned—one of history’s most challenging live acts renders further analysis completely unnecessary....
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Washington Post | "To Be Kind" Review
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Four years ago, and after a 13-year hiatus, Swans frontman and mainstay Michael Gira assembled a new lineup for his New York no-wave band. The new band has been able to resurrect its original post-punk/noise-rock intensity, and its three subsequent albums stand up almost seamlessly next to its original recordings.But age has not made Gira succinct: The newest of those albums, “To Be Kind,” is a two-disc, two-hour recording. The shortest track is five minutes; the longest stretches for nearly 35. Like most Swans albums, “To Be Kind” is not for the faint of heart and can be described with many of the same adjectives as its predecessors: cacophonous, abrasive, ominous and brutal. Still, Gira finds beauty in the darkness. Much of the album seeks solace in trance-inducing repetition. Whether Gira is chanting dryly (“Some Things We Do”) or yelping (“She Loves Us”), his voice is drenched with catharsis, taking listeners on a meditative journey fueled by repetitive instrumentation and Gira’s own weary voice.Even on some of the more unsettling tracks — “Kirsten Supine” swells to a particularly menacing climax — Swans equally embraces the tension and the release. That underlying balance is what makes “To Be Kind” such an......
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Pitchfork Interview with Michael Gira
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Sixty-year-old art-rock godhead Michael Gira talks about how Swans managed to return without losing any potency, the impressive power of St. Vincent and Nina Simone, and how nearly choking to death inspired his band's latest opus. The Seer was the kind of record that seemed impossible to follow up. The nearly-two-hour 2012 LP nailed a deeply transcendent mix of drone, noise, and blues; songs that stretched to 20 and 30 minutes never felt excessive or overdone. It was my favorite album that year by a mile and contained some of the best music of Swans long career. And the band, led by eternal badass Michael Gira, hasn't given up on any of their widescreen ambition on new album To Be Kind, which is even longer than The Seer—and quite possibly better. To Be Kind has a bluesier feel than its predecessor, with a heftier dynamic range aided by deep horn blasts and almost-shimmering production from John Congleton (St. Vincent, Baroness); 34-minute highlight “Bring The Sun / Toussaint L'Ouverture” features the sounds of galloping horses woven into its mix of cinematic drone, pummeling post-rock, and bloody incantations. The group has sounded this massive live, but never on record. The album features the core Swans group of Gira, Norman Westberg, Christoph Hahn, Phil......
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All Music | "To Be Kind" Review
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Let no one say Michael Gira doesn't have something to say and the will to say it: 2014's To Be Kind is the third album from the Swans since he reassembled the band in 2010, and it's his second album in a row that spans two discs and runs over two hours. Gira likes to work on a large musical canvas, and he gives himself all the room he needs on To Be Kind -- "Bring the Sun/Toussaint L'Ouverture" alone is the length of an ordinary album at a shade over 34 minutes.Gira's vision is a bit less dark in the 21st century than it was during the Swans' first run in the '80s and '90s, with fewer lyrical images of rage and torment, but he's no less intense as he barks and howls his lyrics of life in a fallen world, and his music is every bit as physically powerful and challenging. As is the Swans' custom, the pieces on To Be Kind are built around repetitive rhythm patterns, with dynamics taking them from an ominous whisper to an unholy roar and back again, and the sheer physical impact of this music (and the stamina that must have been required to perform it) is remarkable, especially on the four cuts besides "Bring the......