PRESS
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Angels of Light & Akron/Family | Review
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www.scrammagazine.com | Margaret Griffisa collage of world, folk and skronk sounds presented in an acid-washed, often hillbilly groove June/'06The last thing I'd ever expect to write about a Michael Gira record is "imagine a great Beatles record" and yet: imagine a great Beatles record! Okay, so the aforementioned Merseydelia might be heavier on the Akron/Family side of the split, but even taking that out, Gira is still left with the same backing band. (The first seven songs are theirs; the last five are A/F with Gira.) The Liverpudlians aren't the only classic rockers to make an appearance. The Stones, Beach Boys, Amon Düül II, Japan and Lou Reed stumble through--there's even a Dylan cover--a collage of world, folk and skronk sounds presented in an acid-washed, often hillbilly groove. The lessons of the last forty years of rock have been learned, but don't make the mistake of believing this is easily-accessible radio fodder or a platter bereft of noisier elements. It's a mature offering with engaging soundscapes and lyrics that merit deeper investigation. Perhaps, Akron/Family are to blame or laud for what at first might seem incongruous to fans of the heavier Swans or lighter Angels of Light releases, but this unrelated......
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Larkin Grimm | Harpoon | Review
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Foxydigitalis.com | Lee Jackson...a delirious, minimal dream of spectral wanderings that combines an accessible, but scattered, pop sensibility with ornate vocal embellishments.Larkin Grimm arrives under the same bustling avant-folk banner as Lau Nau, Josephine Foster and Spires That in the Sunset Rise. Her fractured tone poems revolve around gentle acoustic strums and fingerpicking, hand percussion, bells, flute and some multi-tracked vocal harmonies. With “Harpoon” she weaves a delirious, minimal dream of spectral wanderings that combines an accessible, but scattered, pop sensibility with ornate vocal embellishments. The cover sketch of Grimm spearing a gargantuan serpent through the skull is the perfect visual compliment for these empowering, occasionally sexually charged, musical evocations. Opener, “Entrance,” is a shimmering bath of guitar plucks and percussive clatter, with Grimm’s layered siren vocal extolling one whose “face is like a big black cloud, and his voice is like a thunderstorm…” to dramatic effect over an Eastern tinged melody. “Going Out” is a caustic stumble of a repetitive vocal mantra and tribal percussion which serves as a declaration of sensual longing that might leave one wondering if he/she could be “strong enough, strange enough, and dark enough” for this feral angel, while “Patch it Up” teeters on......
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Lisa Germano | Review
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Innocent Words Magazine | Troy Michael The Theraputic sounds of music: Lisa Germano works through death, life June/July 2006It could be said that the singer/songwriter/multi instrumentalist Lisa Germano has settled in and become comfortable, at least at this point in her life. However, Germano is never too quick to take anything for granted."I didn't know if I would make this record. I don't see the music business as a cycle that most people do when they record, release an album then tour," Germano said from her Los Angeles apartment where she resides with two cats Lou, who is "the Hollywood cat" and Vian, named after the French writer Boris Vian.The record in question, Germano¹s seventh of her solo career, is In the Maybe World. The 12-song record was released on Michael Gria's Young God Records and deals with themes of (well, what else for Germano?) death. The topics are macabre, but not in the traditional sense of the word."This record is honoring death and seeing life," Germano explained. "The song "Olden Cities" was written by my cat which died from cancer. We had an amazing friendship and I learned from her that death is not sad. It is just a new......
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Michael Gira | Interview
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TAPE OP MAGAZINE ISSUE #53 | Hillary JohnsonMichael Gira Finds Sanctity in the Chaos of the StudioMay/June 2006Michael Gira, co-founder of the seminal, earth-moving band Swans, has developed his skills in the studio as an artist and producer. Searching for unexpected ways to create music while maintaining the integrity of the songs, he's taken a wide range of approaches in his twenty-plus year career. Gira's current project, Angels of Light, moves him forward into enlightenment in the digital age. Since the interview, Michael's record label, Young God Records, has kept him extremely busy, creating history with records by Akron/Family, Devendra Banhart, and Lisa Germano, but he still finds time for collaboration and touring. "I don't know about that, Martin... it doesn't sound fucked-up enough..." - M.Gira 10/10/02Tell me a little about your latest musical project, Angels of Light. How did Angels Of Light come together? How is it different than your other musical endeavors? The first project I did after disbanding Swans in 1997 was a very complicated soundtrack-without-a-film piece called The Body Lovers. It incorporated 24-track mixes of instrumentals, as well as unmixed material; bass/drum grooves that were later looped, guitar fragments, etc., from those same sessions, to ancient -......
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Michael Gira | Interview
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TAPE OP MAGAZINE ISSUE #53 | Hillary JohnsonMichael Gira Finds Sanctity in the Chaos of the StudioMay/June 2006Michael Gira, co-founder of the seminal, earth-moving band Swans, has developed his skills in the studio as an artist and producer. Searching for unexpected ways to create music while maintaining the integrity of the songs, he's taken a wide range of approaches in his twenty-plus year career. Gira's current project, Angels of Light, moves him forward into enlightenment in the digital age. Since the interview, Michael's record label, Young God Records, has kept him extremely busy, creating history with records by Akron/Family, Devendra Banhart, and Lisa Germano, but he still finds time for collaboration and touring. "I don't know about that, Martin... it doesn't sound fucked-up enough..." - M.Gira 10/10/02Tell me a little about your latest musical project, Angels of Light. How did Angels Of Light come together? How is it different than your other musical endeavors? The first project I did after disbanding Swans in 1997 was a very complicated soundtrack-without-a-film piece called The Body Lovers. It incorporated 24-track mixes of instrumentals, as well as unmixed material; bass/drum grooves that were later looped, guitar fragments, etc., from those same sessions, to ancient -......