PRESS
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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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Lisa Germano | Review
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lmnop.com and babysue.com Exceptional from start to finish May 06 No author listedIn the Maybe World (CD, Young God, Progressive pop)One of our favorite artists of all time, Lisa Germano has yet to be properly rewarded for exquisite and remarkable music. Germano has been blowing the minds of a small group of dedicated followers for years now...but the public at large just doesn't seem to notice her. This is probably because Lisa's music is far too intelligent and cerebral for most listeners. Her last album (Lullaby for Liquid Pig) was one of the greatest albums ever recorded...but for the most part, it fell upon deaf ears. In the Maybe World is another magnificent collection of songs. The melodies are personal and the arrangements are purposely intricate. Lisa's voice is soft, fragile, and incredibly focused. Instead of being a vast departure, Maybe World is a continuation of ideas from previous albums. Lisa Germano has refined her music to the point where she has no competitors. Her sound is completely unique and easily stands out in a world where there are so many generic carbon copy artists. Maybe World features some of the most beautiful melodies we have ever heard from this enchanting......
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Akron/Family & Angels of Light | Review
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www.mxdwn.com/ |Raymond Flotat It's A Family Affair Monday, April 10, 2006Like staring long enough at a Jackson Pollock painting, the self-titled combination release from Akron/Family & Angels of Light grows more impressive with each moment spent focusing on it.Michael Gira (formerly of The Swans, and current owner of Young God Records)here operates under his Angels of Light moniker. Seth Olinsky, Miles Seaton, Dana Janssen and Ryan Vanderhoof of Akron/Family solely perform the first seven tracks, and then serve as backing band for Gira on the final five.Akron/Family's cuts cover enough ground gracefully to raise the bar for stylistic competence. The bombastic post-punk noise on "Moment," the insane gospel chant on "Raising The Sparks" and the folk chorus surrounded by ambient dissonance in "Future Myth" play almost without conscious recognition of their differences.This trick is accomplished with the help of immaculate sound design and audio production. The singer on "Oceanside" (it's tough to tell which all four members are credited as singers and multi-instrumentalists) vulnerably coos "I'm moving to the oceanside / where the air is pure and clean" as a symphony of monotone drones spring forth in a manner befitting time-lapse footage of a plant in bloom. On "Dylan Pt. II" the whole......
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Interview with Michael Gira
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Loose Lips Sink Ships | Sophie Harris"Play some Swans!" "No, fuck you!" January 2006The exchange is between a punter at a guess, fat, forty, and hiding behind the merch stand and Michael Gira, the man on stage. The guy who founded Swans in the eighties. He is smiling, amenable; but he still means it. Fuck you. It's a reliable irritation at pretty much any show you see the fact that someone, who feels they know the musician's oeuvre better than anyone else, will yell out for the oldest most obscure song they can think of. As if the musician's face will light up: "Well done!". But in this instance, it's not only irritating, it's also baffling. Why would you ask Michael Gira to play Swans, when the music he's putting out now is so extraordinary? No-one made a record quite like last year's "Angels Of Light Sing Other People". It twinkles and snares in equal measure: on the one hand, you have really pretty melodies, plucked out on mandolin and glockenspiel; umber tones on oboe and cello, fluttering string. And then on the other, there's Gira's voice, a commanding deep, guttural thing, heaved up from the belly, swooping around and......
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Akron/Family | Review
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Time Out | Ben Taylorstunning four-part singingConsidering the hype surrounding the so-called freak-folk explosion, it’s fortunate that austere NYC label Young God Records (home of psych strummer Devendra Banhart) found these bearded young men before the major labels swooped in and ruined everything. Like many of their twenty-something peers; the unrelated members of Akron/Family migrated to Brooklyn from small towns, bonding over Beach Boys and Beefheart records while slinging coffee. They caught a break when Young God head Michael Gira heard their home-brewed demos. Gira produced their eponymous debut before recruiting them as his backing band, the Angels of Light. After two years of heavy touring, the group graced us with an amazing Akron/Family & Angels of Light split album last fall. Akron/Family’s side runs a kaleidoscopic gamut from jammy detours through prog and good old classic rock. What could be a free-form mess is gracefully cohesive thanks to some solid song-writing: Adding freak favorites like banjo, glockenspiel and melodica to a guitar/bass/drums core, it’s the members’ stunning four-part singing (and their brand-new clean-shavedness) that sets them apart from any other short-attention-span band du jour. You can’t miss The Band and Beatles influences in their joyous group shouts and lush harmonies,......