PRESS
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Angels of Light
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TIME OUT NY #493 | Steve SmithFAMILY MAN Michael Gira surrounds himself with old friends and new acquaintances on stage.(FULL PAGE LEAD MUSIC FEATURE, W/PICTURE) MARCH 10-16 '05 ISSUE It¹s radio promo mailing day at the Carroll Gardens headquarters of Young God Records, and label head Michael Gira is a busy man - busy stuffing envelopes. Sitting at a sturdy wooden table, the imposing former front man of industrial-rock pioneers Swans packs padded mailers with new CDs by his current group Angels of Light, and his new signing Akron/Family, (They¹re the same band, more or less, but we¹ll get to that later.) Apart from the hours spent in the studio or on the road, Gira, 51, estimates that running Young God occupies 80 percent of his time and energy. For a working musician, that doesn¹t seem like an ideal arrangement. ³No,² he agrees, ³but it¹s not like I expect to be treated like some precious artist. I have a label, it¹s a responsibility, and I enjoy it. There are tedious aspects²  he gestures towards the CDs and envelopes  ³but it¹s better than hanging sheetrock, which I couldn¹t physically do anymore anyway.² It¹s also fair to say that Gira......
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AKRON/FAMILY MATTERS
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TIME OUT NY #493 | E. MEISTERjoyful, passionate, and intenseThree words most often used by the members of Akron/Family to describe anything are joyful, passionate, and intense, so it¹s not surprising that those adjectives apply to their self-titled debut: An ecstatic amalgam of found noise, instrumental noodling, and off-kilter harmonies, the Family¹s heavily textured sound is born out of a childlike (but not naïve) love of life, each other, and ³silly hippie music.² The ordered chaos of the record is thanks in part to Michael Gira, the Young God records label chief who became something of a spirit animal for the band during the recording. Guitarist Seth Olinski says the art-punk icon ³has this amazing passion that he poured into us. He showed us how to play with conviction and courage.² That confidence shines in the band¹s work on on Gira¹s latest Angels of Light record, Olinski says. ³Michael was willing to take a chance. We don¹t sound like what people think Michael Gira sounds like.² Live, the Family improvises freely (and loudly), but not without admitting an obligation to an audience. ³We have a responsibility to express not just our personal feelings, but something big that people are trying......
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Akron/Family
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Village Voice | March 9th-15thblurbThe young New York transplants in Akron/Family make a lush freak-folk sound that rounds off the edges of big-city art skronk with soft backwoods holler and strum. Ex-Swans mastermind Michael Gira digs 'em so much he put out their record and hired the band to be his latest Angels of Light....
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Angels of Light | Review
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Dustedmagazine.com | Emerson DameronThe Angels of Light Sing "Other People"Michael Gira is rock¹s king of catharsis  this, he¹s established. As the main man behind Swans, he journeyed through industrial crunch and pound into a symphonic, Rhys Chatham etherworld, all the while unafraid to wallow in grandiosity that might send Nick Cave back to Bible camp. Four albums in, Angels of Light appears to be Gira¹s new full-time gig. With it, he¹s supplanted his old aggression with an ear for icy neo-folk beauty and clinical detachment befitting a Burroughs protag. Of course, until lately, his despairing lyrics still dealt with broken lives, decaying flesh as a metaphor for various things, etc. On Other People, his focus shifts to hope, an altogether more slippery subject than all the world¹s hungover depression, however wrenching. The new disc¹s warmest ballads (³My Sister Said² and ³On the Mountain²) tender broad reassurance; its most eccentric experiments (³Simon Is Stronger Than Us² and ³My Friend Thor²) toast specific pals. MG remains more coroner than crooner (before he thanks Thor for saving his life, he reminds him that his ³dogs smell like dead things²), but hearing him wax tender sans acheŠit¹s, at the least, unusual. Of......
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Angels of Light | Review
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Dustedmagazine.com | Emerson DameronThe Angels of Light Sing "Other People"Michael Gira is rock¹s king of catharsis  this, he¹s established. As the main man behind Swans, he journeyed through industrial crunch and pound into a symphonic, Rhys Chatham etherworld, all the while unafraid to wallow in grandiosity that might send Nick Cave back to Bible camp. Four albums in, Angels of Light appears to be Gira¹s new full-time gig. With it, he¹s supplanted his old aggression with an ear for icy neo-folk beauty and clinical detachment befitting a Burroughs protag. Of course, until lately, his despairing lyrics still dealt with broken lives, decaying flesh as a metaphor for various things, etc. On Other People, his focus shifts to hope, an altogether more slippery subject than all the world¹s hungover depression, however wrenching. The new disc¹s warmest ballads (³My Sister Said² and ³On the Mountain²) tender broad reassurance; its most eccentric experiments (³Simon Is Stronger Than Us² and ³My Friend Thor²) toast specific pals. MG remains more coroner than crooner (before he thanks Thor for saving his life, he reminds him that his ³dogs smell like dead things²), but hearing him wax tender sans acheŠit¹s, at the least, unusual. Of......