PRESS
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The Beggar and Live Shows Press Round Up
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Press round up of The Beggar reviews and tour reviews. -
Dangerous Minds ‘AMNESIA’ Debut
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https://dangerousminds.net/comments/listen_to_amnesia_from_the_new_swans_album_leaving_meaning The latest Swans album ‘Leaving Meaning’ was released last week on Young God Records. It’s the band’s fifteenth studio album and the follow up to 2016’s epic ‘The Glowing Man.’ Below, Michael Gira essays the varied talents employed in the making of his latest opus. This originally appeared on the Swans website: “Leaving Meaning is the first Swans album to be released since I dissolved the lineup of musicians that constituted Swans from 2010 – 2017. Swans is now comprised of a revolving cast of musicians, selected for both their musical and personal character, chosen according to what I intuit best suits the atmosphere in which I’d like to see the songs I’ve written presented. In collaboration with me, the musicians, through their personality, skill and taste, contribute greatly to the arrangement of the material. They’re all people whose work I admire and whose company I personally enjoy.”Here below are the primary contributors to Leaving Meaning: Michael Gira – Vocals, words, acoustic/electric guitar, production. I started Swans in NYC in 1982 and have been the primary songwriter, singer and producer throughout the years. In the early years I played bass, but later switched to guitar. During the years of Swans hiatus (1999 –......
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Peek-A-Boo-Magazine Interview
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http://www.peek-a-boo-magazine.be/en/interviews/michael-gira-swans-2019/ MICHAEL GIRA (SWANS) 'Having a strong presence of death in your mind all the time is very healthy thing!' 26/10/2019, Danil VOLOHOV It is quite a difficult task writing about Swans. Of course, there are always certain moments when you, as writer, can mark. Clichés and tags that characterize a certain stage of their career. Since the early 80’s Michael Gira and Swans established a new standard for experimental music. Inspired by the music of Public Image Ltd and Einstürzende Neubauten, Swans created a whole new musical standard. But they were never the same. Of course, thinking about them now you’d imagine noisy guitars, a wall of distortion and slaveship-like drum-beats. And that would be right. But with this, Michael Gira also proved that he could step outside of a certain standard. And it seems that their new album “Leaving Meaning” serves as a proof: acoustic sounds mixed with bluesy chords and certain elements they you wouldn’t expect to hear from Swans. But with all the changes it sounds very organic. As always. In the interview for Peek-A-Boo magazine, Michael Gira told us about songwriting and artistic evolution, about “Leaving Meaning” and performing live, about his cooperation with The......
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Mojo leaving meaning. Review
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Magnet leaving meaning. Review
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http://magnetmagazine.com/2019/11/27/essential-new-music-swans-leaving-meaning/ ESSENTIAL NEW MUSIC: SWANS’ “LEAVING MEANING” The last Swans album, 2016’s The Glowing Man, looked for a moment like it might really be their last. It capped a run that was epic in every way: songs that ran a half hour or longer, tours that stretched to years and a sustained energy that no one wanted to dishonor by letting it go flat. And it captured, as much as a studio album can capture, the essence of the live band. So bandleader Michael Gira went into the tour supporting it saying that this was the end. Turns out that it was the end of “they,” but not the end of Swans. Leaving Meaning refigures the “group” as Gira and whoever he chooses to work with. Members of the 2010-2017 band appear, as do figures from other phases of Swans. But there are also people who were never Swans before or aren’t going to be with Swans for the long haul because they have other things to do. The Necks, an improvisational trio from Australia, back Gira on two tunes, and cabaret chanteuse Baby Dee sings lead on another. Enjoy them for a moment, first because that’s all you’re going to get, but......