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The Quietus Album Review | Swans "To Be Kind"

May 19, 2014

May 7, 2014

To say that Swans have had a successful comeback would be the mother of all understatements. When Michael Gira reactivated the band in 2010, only the most hopeful of aficionados would have expected anything even vaguely comparable to the greatest moments of their original incarnation (1987’sChildren of God and 1996’s Soundtracks for the Blind). The comeback record,My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky was somewhat understated, although not a disappointment, but 2012’s staggering The Seerwas not only easily the equal of its illustrious forebears, it won Swans an impressive array of new... Read more...

HOW GIRA GOT HIS GROOVE BACK: THE SWANS FRONTMAN ON KLIMT, KUTI AND TANTRIC SEX

May 7, 2014

It doesn’t feel like an exaggeration to say that, at its peak, ‘Bring The Sun / Toussaint L’Ouverture’ – the opus at the centre of Swans’ latest album To Be Kind - sounds like the heavens being ripped open. Then again, the aim of Swans’ music has never been mere sonic affect, but shared sublime experience. Steering the band towards that common goal is the visionary Michael Gira. On stage, he contorts and flails, guiding the band like a possessed conductor, and it’s easy to imagine him acting similarly in the studio, sculpting chaos... Read more...

This Is My Sermon: M Gira Of Swans Speaks To John Doran

May 7, 2014

John Doran , May 6th, 2014 Ahead of the release of magnificent new Swans album To Be Kind, Michael Gira speaks to John Doran about that LP's ferocious grooves, his role as band leader, Haitian history, the early days of the group, and his terror at the ever-increasing commercialisation of our society. Photography by Jennifer Church, Sebastien Sighell and Matias Coral I read something very smart about Swans that was posted on the music discussion board ILM about twelve years ago. A poster made a comparison which was so unusual it... Read more...

The Skinny - To Be Kind Review

April 30, 2014

Swans – To Be Kind 4/5 stars ALBUM REVIEW BY COLM MCAULIFFE. PUBLISHED 30 APRIL 2014 Swans have consistently offered the most brutal of listening endurance tests with the maniacal Michael Gira spitting blood and venom at the wheel. This laudable commitment to extremity has its roots in the early 1980s downtown New York rock community but, on the evidence of To Be Kind, Gira and co. have thoroughly outlasted and outperformed their atonal contemporaries and honed their hostile grind into a sinewy and slinky onslaught of light and shade. The album displays... Read more...

Q Magazine To Be Kind review

April 30, 2014

Pitchfork Best New Track

April 30, 2014

Swans "Oxygen" Young God / Mute By Stuart Berman; April 15, 2014 The latter-day Swans have become synonymous with a certain imposing sprawl, specializing in the sort of colossal, half-hour long pieces that require you to book off time in your iCal just to listen to them. By comparison, “Oxygen”, the second teaser released from the upcoming To Be Kind, is practically a pop single, not just for its relavite brevity (only eight minutes!), but its structural simplicity and jugular-clenching force. Forsaking the band’s usual ominous build-ups/breakdowns and carefully orchestrated chaos for sheer, unrelenting pig-fuckery,... Read more...

Dangerous Minds To Be Kind Feature

April 30, 2014

SWANS’ MICHAEL GIRA ON THEIR FORTHCOMING TRIPLE ALBUM ‘TO BE KIND’ Michael Gira’s band Swans have shape-shifted but plenty. They made their reputation with an extraordinarily punishing and shockingly nihilistic take on no-wave music in the 1980s, culminating in the colossal masterpiece Children of God. They then curve-balled their fans with relatively introspective and quietly mournful LPs at the decade’s turn. The ‘90s saw further experimentation, ending with the final album of their first incarnation, Soundtracks for the Blind in 1996. But whatever Swans’ approach, be it the bludgeoning riffs of their... Read more...