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M. Gira | Drainland | Review
Metroland, Albany NY | J. Eric SmithDrainland's oftentimes disturbing imagery makes it a record to avoid like buboes for the faint of constitution.While quasi-religious gumpisms and random acts emerge as the preferred salves for the collective cultural conscience during our Fluffy Spirituality Phase, Michael Gira stands before the horrifically confrontational Swans screaming in confusion over the painful messiness involved with being animated (but transcendence seeking) meat. His limping quest to reconcile (and not just salve) the chafe of selfish bodily reality against social convention and spiritual aspiration is documented on... Read more...
Swans | Swans Related Projects | Review
SF Weekly ReviewThe kind of disturbing intensity expected from a "Swans Related Project."Swans Related Project: Jarboe Sacrificial Cake (Alternative Tentacles) Swans Related Project: M. Gira Drainland (Alternative Tentacles) After nearly a decade and a half of turning inner turmoil into cathartic wastelands of tortured sound, Swans gurus Michael Gira and Jarboe have embarked on two new solo ventures: Sacrificial Cake marks Jarboe's third outing as a lone leader; Drainland is M. Gira's debut. Both discs fuse sex, violence, and considerable nihilism with the kind of disturbing intensity expected from a... Read more...
Swans | Swans Related Projects | Review
Ohio Music Press | Caldwell Nobletwo different albums that reflect each of their personalitiesTo simply describe the recent incarnation of Swans as a bit dark and moody is like saying Quentin Tarantino makes films that are mildly aggressive. For the most part, M. Gira is Swans. Since 1982, Gira's reign has spawned a body of work spanning an array of styles: punk, goth, noise and dance. Over the years, he has also been joined by a rogues gallery of musicians including Jim Thirwell (Foetus), Anton Fier (Golden Palominos) and members... Read more...
M. Gira | Drainland | Review
Music for the Empty Quarter | VLTen invasive songsIt's well over a decade now since Swans unleashed their venom on an unsuspecting world, but this is the first solo release proper from Gira himself, (assisted by Jarboe and Ministry's Bill Rieflin). "Drainland," not surprisingly, is an intensely personal journey into one man's angst-filled universe. Ten invasive songs that range from the beautifully sad opener, "You See Through Me," wherein Gira sings the title repeatedly over Death in June-like melody and a tape of a relationship in the throes of breakdown,... Read more...
Swans | Swans Related Projects | Review
The Wire | Biba Kopfreturn to the scenes of Swans crimesSwans Related Project: M Gira Drainland Swans Related Project: Jarboe Sacrificial Cake Down the years and despite the growth, the stylistic permutations and the occasional aberrations into something resembling warmth, Swans have been such a single-minded project you have to wonder why its perpetrator Michael Gira would need to make a solo album. Granted, you can see how Jarboe needs space elsewhere to express ideas that fall outside Gira's scheme of things. The great success of these Swans Related Projects... Read more...
Swans | Swans Related Projects | Review
Hypnono way limited to any definable genreThe SWANS initial release, 4 SONG EP, in 1982 was a stunner. "Shocking" may not be too strong a word. Loud, noisy, dreadfully slow, torturous music behind even more tortured vocals. Next to this record even JOY DIVISION is a campfire sing-a-long. NICO is a cheerleader. I had not heard, up to that point, an album of such powerful grating noise, and such sadness and beauty all at the same time. The intervening recordings were always interesting. They experimented a lot. Or, at least,... Read more...
Swans / M. Gira | The Great Annihilator / Drainland | Review
Rolling StoneGreat Annihilator ***, Drainland ***A decade ago SWANS were a seminal noise band, a contemporary influence on Sonic Youth and a predecessor to Nine Inch Nails. But Swans' aggressively ugly music—loud, slow and monotonously grinding—combined with singer M. Gira's queasy lyric stew of sadistic sex and violence guaranteed a limited audience. Since then they've somehow perservered largely unheard, on the fringe's fringe. Even more surprising given their monotonic original sound they've evolved. The current Swans consist of Gira on vocals, guitar and miscellaneous sounds, and a woman named Jarboe... Read more...
Swans | Swans Related Projects | Review
The Wire | Biba Kopfreturn to the scenes of Swans crimesSwans Related Project: M Gira Drainland Swans Related Project: Jarboe Sacrificial Cake Down the years and despite the growth, the stylistic permutations and the occasional aberrations into something resembling warmth, Swans have been such a single-minded project you have to wonder why its perpetrator Michael Gira would need to make a solo album. Granted, you can see how Jarboe needs space elsewhere to express ideas that fall outside Gira's scheme of things. The great success of these Swans Related Projects... Read more...
M. Gira | Drainland | Review
The Lizard | Jamie T. Conwayheavier than everAnd so you grow old. Naiveté is no longer your ally; forced to acknowledge the anguish and torment you so selfishly and effortlessly caused, you suffer similar betrayals without complaint, saddened not by your friends behavior but because you know their transgression was as inevitable as your own. You watch—sometimes with compassion, sometimes with guilty indifference—as tragedy comes crashing into their lives, battering them into hopeless submission. Start staring sadly at coffee stained photographs, indulging in the sappy sentimentality you despised in your... Read more...
Swans | Swans Related Projects | Review
Roadkilltwo extraordinary albumsM. Gira - Drainland Jarboe - Sacrificial Cake Let's get one thing straight. These LPs will not be bad. It is impossible for Gira to do anything remotely resembling a failure (apart from his immense song of the same name!). His solo offering should easily be a Swans LP on its own. The spacious almost choral backing is there in force, and the deep, deep vocals brood over the top. Some of the tracks seem to harken back to the more industrial era of Swans, particularly track 3,... Read more...

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