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M. Gira | Drainland | Review
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Metroland, Albany NY | J. Eric SmithDrainland's oftentimes disturbing imagery makes it a record to avoid like buboes for the faint of constitution.While quasi-religious gumpisms and random acts emerge as the preferred salves for the collective cultural conscience during our Fluffy Spirituality Phase, Michael Gira stands before the horrifically confrontational Swans screaming in confusion over the painful messiness involved with being animated (but transcendence seeking) meat. His limping quest to reconcile (and not just salve) the chafe of selfish bodily reality against social convention and spiritual aspiration is documented on records with Circus Mort, Swans, Skin (Gira), and The World of Skin, any of which can serve as an effective antidote to the unpleasant numbing and tingling effects caused by overuse of Fluffy Spirituality Salve. Drainland, featuring fellow Swans Jarboe and Bill Rieflin, provides the newest chapter in Gira's progress as reluctant pilgrim. The Branca-meets-Wagner triple guitar attack of Swans' recent The Great Annihilator has been replaced with lean tape-loop/sample driven grooves wrapped in organ washes and resonant twelve-string drones. Gira's voice remains a natural wonder—a sepulchral bass that is both meditative and mournful, and is perfectly suited to songs with titles like "Why I Ate My Wife," "I See......
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Swans | Swans Related Projects | Review
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SF Weekly ReviewThe kind of disturbing intensity expected from a "Swans Related Project."Swans Related Project: Jarboe Sacrificial Cake (Alternative Tentacles) Swans Related Project: M. Gira Drainland (Alternative Tentacles) After nearly a decade and a half of turning inner turmoil into cathartic wastelands of tortured sound, Swans gurus Michael Gira and Jarboe have embarked on two new solo ventures: Sacrificial Cake marks Jarboe's third outing as a lone leader; Drainland is M. Gira's debut. Both discs fuse sex, violence, and considerable nihilism with the kind of disturbing intensity expected from a "Swans Related Project." Amid trenchant layers of shimmering guitar and swampy synthetics, Gira explores the self-delusion of alcoholic detachment. Drainland kicks off with "You see through me," a verite-sounding taped encounter in which Jarboe confronts Gira with her anxiety about his "drinking too much." Gira argues that it's "your problem, not mine." and that she must now "support" his alcoholism: "Shut your mouth and get some money." The release closes with "Blind," Gira's acknowledgement of his "self-deception" and a plea for pity "Because when we're drinking/ We can never be filled." He intones, "When I look in the mirror/ I feel dead/ I feel cold / I am blind." Bloody......
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Swans | Swans Related Projects | Review
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Ohio Music Press | Caldwell Nobletwo different albums that reflect each of their personalitiesTo simply describe the recent incarnation of Swans as a bit dark and moody is like saying Quentin Tarantino makes films that are mildly aggressive. For the most part, M. Gira is Swans. Since 1982, Gira's reign has spawned a body of work spanning an array of styles: punk, goth, noise and dance. Over the years, he has also been joined by a rogues gallery of musicians including Jim Thirwell (Foetus), Anton Fier (Golden Palominos) and members of Prong. His main collaborator for the past few Swans albums is singer, lyricist, and queen of assorted noises, Jarboe. Together, she and Gira have produced some of the best and most brooding titles in the Swans' catalog: White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity, The World of Skin, Love of Life, and The Great Annihilator. On individual releases titled Swans Related Project, Jarboe and M. Gira present two different albums that reflect each of their personalities. Even though they swap guest appearances, these two albums possess distinct identities. M. Gira's Drainland is a musical walk through a New Orleans cemetery on a rainy All Saint's Eve. As the sun......
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M. Gira | Drainland | Review
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Music for the Empty Quarter | VLTen invasive songsIt's well over a decade now since Swans unleashed their venom on an unsuspecting world, but this is the first solo release proper from Gira himself, (assisted by Jarboe and Ministry's Bill Rieflin). "Drainland," not surprisingly, is an intensely personal journey into one man's angst-filled universe. Ten invasive songs that range from the beautifully sad opener, "You See Through Me," wherein Gira sings the title repeatedly over Death in June-like melody and a tape of a relationship in the throes of breakdown, to the horrific lyrics and slow pounding of "I See Them All Lined Up," to the cynical and egomaniacal "Fan Letter." The acoustic guitars and keyboards work well against Gira's deep vocals and the noise elements that make their irksome presence felt. An emotionally heavy (although musically affecting) experience, this is a long-awaited disc that doesn't disappoint at all. The final track, "Blind," is peculiarly upbeat despite its message: "I was younger once, and I created a lie/And though my body was strong, I was self-deluded, confident and blind." Impressively convincing....
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Swans | Swans Related Projects | Review
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The Wire | Biba Kopfreturn to the scenes of Swans crimesSwans Related Project: M Gira Drainland Swans Related Project: Jarboe Sacrificial Cake Down the years and despite the growth, the stylistic permutations and the occasional aberrations into something resembling warmth, Swans have been such a single-minded project you have to wonder why its perpetrator Michael Gira would need to make a solo album. Granted, you can see how Jarboe needs space elsewhere to express ideas that fall outside Gira's scheme of things. The great success of these Swans Related Projects is how they return to the scenes of Swans crimes, so to speak, and light them up differently, and then again entirely different from each other. Aptly titled, Gira's Drainland is drained of blood, tears and excess emotion. Its songs are autopsies, body parts laid out on the mortician's slab and spoken-sung in bleak monotone. Well, Gira has always been the most Beckett-like of songwriters. Interlocking word and image in a manner that superficially suggests simple body mechanics—skull connected to your neckbone, etc. Yet the accumulative impact of bare-boned lines dovetailed with equally pared rhythm and melody and muscle-toned with sparse noise samples is emotionally devastating. This is a document......