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Angels Of Light Sing Other People
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Tandem Newspaper, Toronto | Chris TwomeyGira searches for the redemption of America with these fascinating songsFormer Swans vocalist Michael Gira and his bands have given some of the most extraordinary performances I¹ve seen. His latest compositions are for Angels Of Light, who will be performing at the Music Gallery at St. George the Martyr Church this Thursday, April 14th, along with a new acoustic-based band he¹s just produced, Akron/Family. Gira was influenced by his experience with them to record without drums or the monumental dynamics that distinguished his music. This new back-to-basics, almost folksy Gira is initially very different and disturbing because his usual intensity has been replaced by a relaxed and happy tone!? But his muse doesn¹t fail him, as an inspired lament about the Iraq invasion ("Destroyer") proves that the real power is the conviction in the man¹s voice and not the volume of any instruments he uses. Sounding like a post-modern Johnny Cash, Gira searches for the redemption of America with these fascinating songs about real people and their media-fed illusions....
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Angels Of Light Sing Other People
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Tandem Newspaper, Toronto | Chris TwomeyGira searches for the redemption of America with these fascinating songsFormer Swans vocalist Michael Gira and his bands have given some of the most extraordinary performances I¹ve seen. His latest compositions are for Angels Of Light, who will be performing at the Music Gallery at St. George the Martyr Church this Thursday, April 14th, along with a new acoustic-based band he¹s just produced, Akron/Family. Gira was influenced by his experience with them to record without drums or the monumental dynamics that distinguished his music. This new back-to-basics, almost folksy Gira is initially very different and disturbing because his usual intensity has been replaced by a relaxed and happy tone!? But his muse doesn¹t fail him, as an inspired lament about the Iraq invasion ("Destroyer") proves that the real power is the conviction in the man¹s voice and not the volume of any instruments he uses. Sounding like a post-modern Johnny Cash, Gira searches for the redemption of America with these fascinating songs about real people and their media-fed illusions....
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Akron/Family
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The Wire, April 2005 | by Sam DaviesImmaculately interwoven electronics and beautifully recordedAkron/Family have a difficult act to follow. The last time Michael Gira took an unknown under his wing on Young God Records, the protégé (Devendra Banhart) went on to eclipse the patron, signing for XL. Like Banhart, Akron/Family's hushed leftfield pastoralism invite comparison with the loose US scene of folk-derived weirdness.: The instrumentation is largely acoustic, the songs are edits of lengthy jamming (implying all kinds of trance free form exploration), and the name suggests these Williamsburg residents form an Ex-style domestic commune. On the contrary, the four Family members (Dana Janssen, Seth Olinski, Ryan Vanderhoof and Miles Seaton) produce a sound that rings with a sober concentration at odds with the psychedelic agenda of much of free folk. Immaculately interwoven electronics and the care with which each beautifully recorded track unfolds recall Chicago post-rock instead. Some occasional eruptions wouldn't hurt, without sacrificing the elegiac, late night, early morning ambience. Their composure is broken somewhat by the meandering fuzz guitar on "Suchness" and serpentine slide on "Afford", permitting Akron/Family to escape self consciousness. But this disc is a brimful of quiet and fastidious touches....
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Akron/Family, self-titled (Young God Records)
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Erasingclouds.com | by Dave HeatonAkron/Family's style of music is unique"I have to say something if I wanna sing / but it's not about the words / it's my voice rising..." Thus begins Akron/Family's debut, self-titled album. Yet rather than a group which uses voice solely as an instrument, not to express meaning, Akron/Family come off on most of the album as philosophers, using artful folk music to work through ideas about existence. Of course, that opening salvo could be just such an exercise, as those words draw attention to the words themselves more than they would have otherwise. And identity and being seem like important concerns to Akron/Family, from their song "Suchness" ("I want to see the thing in itself / I don't want to think no more") through to the album-ending pair of "How Do I Know" ("how do I know why I'm alive") and Franny ("please lord give me strength / to be nobody"). In many ways, Akron/Family feels like a completely intellectual foray, but the music itself is often quite visceral, as is Dana Janssen's high-pitched, weary-sounding voice. Their songs echo traditional folk sounds in a way, but they just as often pack a vaguely psychedelic punch,......
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Angels of Light Sing Other People | Review
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cdreviews.com | Joel Dunhammy favorite album of the year so far“For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.†-St. Paul. I highly doubt that Michael Gira named his songwriting project Angels of Light without knowledge of this passage of the New Testament.* By assuming the name’s and the passage’s coexistence are merely coincidental, we pass up the opportunity to complement Gira with a clever witticism that he undoubtedly deserves. Paul refers to demons dressing themselves as “angels of light.†If there ever was a demon in the music world, it’s Gira. He was one of the principal members of the Swans, an 80’s sludge rock band whose nihilism, sadistic lyrics, bludgeoning and unrelenting sound is too nasty even for this noise-o-phile. Since disbanding the Swans, Gira moved into seemingly the opposite direction: folk. Although his compositions are now better described as “pretty†rather than “brutal,†Gira still retains the edge of his early devilishness. Angels of Light Sing Other People, the fourth Angels of Light LP, is my favorite album of the year so far. On Other People Michael Gira for......