PRESS
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ANGELS OF LIGHT | Everything Is Good Here
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Jersey Beat | Greg Matherlymethodical and intense, even at its most subtleEverything Is Good Here/Please Come Home What's to be said about Michael Gira? It's difficult not to hear his influence over countless bands today that describe themselves as dark, industrial, or brooding. Even in the heavy metal scene, the Swans influence rears its head. Thing is, by the time a lot of these bands incorporate their prayers to Gira, it's second or third-hand influence. They know not the god they wish to be. This is the ubiquitous influence of Gira. For the third release of Angels of Light, Michael assembled a host of amazing musicians. He claims it's the best release yet under that moniker, and I am very much inclined to believe him. This record is methodical and intense, even at its most subtle. Gira merely opens his mouth and the carnivalesque is envoked-add to this a biting urgency, clearly expressed from the scream to the whisper, and an interplay of acoustic guitar, "treated" guitar, violin, mandolin, trombone, banjo, and a children's choir, and what you get is a small masterpiece from a veteran of pain, loss, and condensed anger. There's a tour coming up, kids. Do your......
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Everything Is Good Here/Please Come Home
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The Chronicle | by Mia TateThe listener is left disorientated, yet yearning for moreRarely does a musical piece deliver the same structure, mood and aftereffects that an abstract motion picture does. One of these extraordinary albums is Everything Is Good Here/Please Come Home by The Angels of Light, the third full length album from ex-Swans vocalist and Brooklyn based label, Young God Records owner Michael Gira. At the end of the album, like an elusive film, the listener is left disorientated, yet yearning for more. One can only wonder why such classic film-noir music have yet to be featured on the soundtracks to surreal films by eccentric directors such as David Lynch and Harmony Korine. The album’s often menacing tone, is due to the resonant orchestral instrumentation, which provides an almost majestic, enduring eminence in the ways of a more mature The Black Heart Procession and Godspeed You Black Emperor!. Gira touches on subjects as betrayal, the loss of love, death, and all things sour. However, What at first appear to be simplistic faint lyrics, with each line having no real connection to the former, when scrupulously examined, the actual message becomes clear. When these same morose lyrics are sung......
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Everything is Good Here
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Voir | Thierry Bissonnette4 1/2 starsAprès un magistral second album avec son ensemble Angels of Light, Michael Gira approfondit sa vision très étrange du folk américain, tout en évitant - habitude salutaire chez lui - de se répéter. Doté d'un bel éventail de musiciens, meublé par une variété d'ambiances surprenantes, ce nouveau recueil s'avance en terrain inconnu tout en récupérant la tendance répétitive, incantatoire et parfois très lourde, de la période Swans de Gira. Peinture indirecte de l'Amérique actuelle, cette dizaine de chansons sans compromis possède une profondeur et une originalité exemplaires, source d'une beauté cruelle, tendre et pessimiste. À ranger parmi les Drake, Cash et Cave même si l'apprivoisement peut être plus difficile....
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An Interview With Devendra Banhart
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Jersey Beat | Greg MatherlyOr: The Final Saga in the Adventures of Unlikely Light in ConcretevilleIt starts with the name: Devendra Banhart. Next, it’s the history: born in Texas, raised in Venezuela, lived in NoCal, SoCal, Paris, and always on the move. Devendra settled in Brooklyn a couple of years ago and in just a few short months the demo tape he had in tow accidentally became his first release, entitled, Oh Me Oh My… The Way the Day Goes by the Sun Is Setting Dogs Are Dreaming Lovesongs of the Christmas Spirit (2002), on Michael Gira’s Young God Records. He does all of his own album art, and he is working on his first book: a collection of writings and surreal drawings, which somehow manage to resemble woodcuts of antiquity. All that sounds rather intriguing, given the songwriter has only made 22 trips around the sun. But then, there’s the music. Devendra has an incredibly unique angle on songwriting. His is a well-versed, poignant, and often times giddy amalgamation of the more humble elements of psychedelia, and the brashier elements of folk. Before you become tantalized with the world that Devendra doodles in your head, however, you are caught......
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An Interview With Devendra Banhart
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Jersey Beat | Greg MatherlyOr: The Final Saga in the Adventures of Unlikely Light in ConcretevilleIt starts with the name: Devendra Banhart. Next, it’s the history: born in Texas, raised in Venezuela, lived in NoCal, SoCal, Paris, and always on the move. Devendra settled in Brooklyn a couple of years ago and in just a few short months the demo tape he had in tow accidentally became his first release, entitled, Oh Me Oh My… The Way the Day Goes by the Sun Is Setting Dogs Are Dreaming Lovesongs of the Christmas Spirit (2002), on Michael Gira’s Young God Records. He does all of his own album art, and he is working on his first book: a collection of writings and surreal drawings, which somehow manage to resemble woodcuts of antiquity. All that sounds rather intriguing, given the songwriter has only made 22 trips around the sun. But then, there’s the music. Devendra has an incredibly unique angle on songwriting. His is a well-versed, poignant, and often times giddy amalgamation of the more humble elements of psychedelia, and the brashier elements of folk. Before you become tantalized with the world that Devendra doodles in your head, however, you are caught......