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Exploding Head Syndrome Album Review
Album Review / Swans – The Glowing ManWHEN: 17.06.2016WHERE: Young Gods RecordsLOVE.LIKE.ALRIGHT: LOVE Trilogies are usually very difficult to perfect. In my lifetime I’ve witnessed some excellent examples of the perfect trilogy (Back to the Future, LOTR) as well as a huge amount of poorly attempted ones (The Matrix, Iron Man and The Hangover movies). I do struggle to recall many trilogies occurring in the world of music however – obviously this is a feat that could only be attempted by Swans. Arguably the greatest behemoth in music today, Swans... Read more...
OBSERVER INTERVIEW
Michael Gira on ‘Dangling Off the Edge of a Cliff’ for Swans’ Epic Final AlbumBy Jordan N. Mamonehttp://observer.com/2016/07/michael-gira-on-dangling-off-the-edge-of-a-cliff-for-swans-epic-final-album/ Swans leader Michael Gira is awake and affable at 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning. His alertness at such an ungodly hour may initially seem contrary to his group’s dark, foreboding image, but it actually squares perfectly with the singer’s Stakhanovite work ethic. (Never mind that he’s also the father of a pair of young children.) Born in 1982, broken up by 1997, and revived in 2010, Swans subsequently began attracting their largest audiences yet thanks... Read more...
Contact Music Glowing Man Review
Review of The Glowing Man Album by SwansBy Max CussonsExtraordinaryhttp://www.contactmusic.com/swans/music/swans-the-glowing-man-album-review Where to begin when talking about Swans? This is the band with arguably the richest history in experimental music. For starters there's their significance to ugly no-wave and noise rock in the eighties, with their first run of albums, then their evolution into more ethereal music which led up to their tenth and final album before initially breaking up, 1996's 'Soundtracks For The Blind' an album about two and a half hours long which included soaring post-rock, animalistic noisy numbers... Read more...
The Week Glowing Man Review
How Swans became modern rock's greatest re-invention taleGreg Cwikhttp://theweek.com/articles/631011/how-swans-became-modern-rocks-greatest-reinvention-tale Listening to Swans is a total-body experience that borders on being an out-of-body experience. You feel the music envelope you, as if drowning in the writhing sea of noise that seeps out of the wunderkammer consciousness of mad genius Michael Gira. The music washes over you, permeates you, seduces you, and abuses you. It's histrionic and huge and relentless, but can be intimate — savagely intimate. No rock band in recent memory has so deeply tapped into the existential ache of... Read more...
Pretty Much Amazing Glowing Man Review
Review: Swans, The Glowing ManThe Glowing Man is the best sendoff the band could have possibly given themselvesLUKE FOWLER  JUN 23, 2016http://prettymuchamazing.com/reviews/swans-glowing-man "Usually—I have no other way to describe it—I’m in a sort of vacant state, fooling around on my guitar, and suddenly images start flowing through me. It starts with a phrase or two, then just grows like kudzu on a tree, feeding on hapless me, the unwitting host. I’ve used the conceit of calling the person or entity that inhabits me at these moments Joseph—even wrote a song... Read more...
Gig Soup Glowing Man Review
 Swans ‘The Glowing Man’ – ALBUM REVIEWby Daniel Kirbyhttp://www.gigsoup.co.uk/reviews/album-reviews/editing-swans-glowing-man-album-review/ One of the most challenging bands of the past 35 years, Swans emerged out of New York’s no wave scene in the early 1980’s alongside the likes of Sonic Youth. Revolving around the uncompromisingMichael Gira, their early material was a terrifyingly nihilistic and aggressive blend of industrial and noise rock played live at vomit inducing volumes. The influence of Gira’s then partner Jarboewould gradually lead in the toning down of Swans sound to include various forms of experimental rock, folk and later electronics, with decision to dissolve the band coming while they were at their peak in... Read more...
The Student Playlist Glowing Man Review
REVIEW: Swans – ‘The Glowing Man’ (Young God / Mute)by Ed Biggshttp://www.thestudentplaylist.com/review-swans-the-glowing-man/ Following the reformation of his legendary, pioneering no-wave/noise rock outfit Swans at the end of the noughties, Michael Gira has overseen the most powerful, emotional and, arguably melodicsequence of albums in the band’s catalogue. Only hinted at in 2010’s returning effort My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky, this monstrously epic iteration of Swans, dealing in songs that more often than not last nearly half an hour at a time, came to full bloom on... Read more...
Pelican Magazine Glowing Man Review
REVIEW: SWANS – THE GLOWING MAN (YOUNG GOD) 9/10http://pelicanmagazine.com.au/2016/06/22/review-swans-glowing-man-young-god/ It’s here, this is it, the grand finale, the last hurrah for Michael Gira and the gang, the swansong of it all (pun intended), and it couldn’t possibly get better than this. Swans have had a pretty eventful career over the years in which Gira was the only consistent member, although Norman Westberg was present for all except one. Beginning in the early 80s producing snarling, mechanical no-wave with albums like Public Castration is a Good Idea (yes that is an... Read more...
Scene Point Blank Glowing Man Review
Swans The Glowing Manhttp://www.scenepointblank.com/reviews/swans/glowing-man/ Bands returning after a prolonged hiatus, or re-forming after a break, are rarely able to recapture the essence and/or quality of their earlier existence. When Michael Gira announced the return of Swans it seemed that it would solely be a repeat of the band's earliest style at best. My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky came fourteen years after Soundtracks for The Blind, and it was an album that stood with grace next to historic releases such as White Light From The... Read more...
Kerrang Glowing Man Review
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