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MICHAEL GIRA ON THE ANGELS OF LIGHT
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Discorder Magazine, Vancouver BC | Cover Story | BarbaraAND OTHER MAGICAL THINGSMaybe I was wrong to contemplate a feminist analysis of Mr. Michael Gira. As I stepped into the impersonal and awkward process of initiating an email interview with the man behind the Swans etc., I felt a surge of righteous applicability - I could stick my undergraduate theories all over him, and he wouldn't even care! The day after I sent my questions off, I felt the first tremors of uncertainty. My careful wording, and double-doublethink self-repression notwithstanding, I thought for sure that he would spot me for what I am: a) a university student, b) a very big fan, c) a woman who has trouble with men, and who finds interviews extremely intimidating. As it goes, I never really asked him anything approaching my real questions, which were all about bodies and the things humans communicate through them: Love, power, powerlessness, hate. Bodies are what we are, after all. Bodies, real and imagined, have been the singular fixation of Gira's lyrical universe in everything I've ever heard by him. I really want to dig up those bodies and talk about them, cuz most people who write love songs......
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Michael Gira | Interview
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QRD"I hate my guitar." - M.GiraIf you have paid any attention to QRD you know who Michael Gira is. He was the leader of Swans & now he's moved on to do new stuff which is even better than his earlier work. Nearly everyone I know & respect put his latest Angels of Light album How I Loved You in their 2001 top 10, so there you go. QRD -- When do you plan to record the new songs you're currently touring with? Michael -- I have no idea. Just when we get some money & time. As it turns out, we'll begin recording in mid February 2002. QRD -- How permanent is the current Angels of Light line up live? Michael -- I'd like to see it stay permanent. Everybody has different things they do & it's flexible in that way, but it's great & I'd like to keep it. QRD -- Do you think you'll ever combine the elements of The Body Lovers & The Angels of Light? Michael -- No. QRD -- What is the current status of The Body Lovers #2 of 3? Michael -- It's suffering from lack of money to record. As soon as......
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Larsen | Rever | Review
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rockit.it | Massimiliano OsiniVi prego quindi di non ignorare questo disco, se non altro per una forma di equità critica. E’ con colpevole ritardo che mi accingo alla recensione del disco d’esordio dei Larsen che, in vero, si presenta sia da un punto di vista musicale, sia da uno squisitamente produttivo, come un vero e proprio exploit nel panorama italiano. "Rever" è infatti uno dei migliori lavori autoctoni che abbia ascoltato quest’anno, perfettamente a suo agio nel panorama post-rock internazionale, nonché prodotto e distribuito da un’etichetta americana. In cerca di scusanti posso dire che l’enorme mole di cd che vengono stampati al giorno d’oggi rende improbo il compito di riuscire a cogliere i lavori migliori. A ciò si somma il fatto che questo collettivo di musicisti torinesi non si dimostra molto incline ad una qualsiasi attività promozionale in fede a una non ben specificata teoria dell’oscurità . Invito comunque i lettori a visitare il sito della Young God (www.younggodrecords.com) dove possono trovare un interessante resoconto delle modalità con le quali il gruppo è entrato in contatto con questa label. Prodotto da Mike Gira (ex Swans) il disco non si discosta molto dal solco tracciato dagli ultimi percorsi di quest’ultimo e......
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Angels of Light | Preview
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THE NEW YORKER | DAN KAUFMANLive at the Bowery Ballroom, NYC.A rare appearance by the enchanting home-town quartet Angels of Light. The band's leader Michael Gira has for twenty years pushed fiercely (sometimes violently) against lyrical and musical boundaries. In the early eighties he founded the legendary New York nihilists Swans and took that band on an unexpected arc from primal songs with sadomasochistic overtones to lush and beautiful soaring strings and haunting melodies. The Angels of Light continue the journey, going ever deeper into a world of rich harmony. It's four members play a plethora of instruments, including hammer dulcimer, piano, and autoharp, all of which evoke the spirit of old-time country music from the Carter Family era. The lyrics, however, are unwavering -often dark and occasionally self-lacerating, they give the music a razorlike edge....
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Angels of Light | Live | Preview
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The Chicago Reader | Monica Kendrick...the best of (Gira's) post-Swans stuff...It’s good when artists age gracefully, but it’s even better when they do it strikingly. Take Michael Gira: His old band Swans took a daring turn in the mid-80’s from brutal crunch into brooding songcraft, and the transition, captured in 1987 on Children of God, was a little bumpy. Gira was notoriously dissatisfied with the band’s Bill Laswell-produced major label debut, The Burning World, in 1989 and his partner in crime since 1986 Jarboe, took more than her share of blame from old fans. But once they hit their stride together, they produced a a singular hybrid of pulsating noise, feminist dark folk, and goosebumpy electronics, in particular on their last studio album Soundtracks for the Blind. Gira and Jarboe parted ways in 1997, and since then Gira has been one prolific son of a bitch, using his Young God label to release records by up-and-comers like Flux Information Sciences and Windsor for the Derby as well as Swans re-issues and a constant stream of his own projects. He’s put out a solo record, The Somniloquist, under his own name; another with a studio band, The Body Lovers; and recorded......