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Wall of Sound leaving meaning. Review
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https://wallofsoundau.com/2019/10/29/swans-leaving-meaning-album-review/ SWANS – Leaving MeaningReleased: October 25th, 2019 Swans lineup Michael Gira | Vocals, Guitars Leaving Meaning marks the 15th studio album of SWANS’ long and incredibly diverse discography, the first album since frontman Michael Gira formally dissolved the most recent lineup of the band in favour of a revolving door of handpicked musicians. In typical SWANS style, Leaving Meaning is a departure from the orgasmic climax-oriented post-rock of their recent trilogy of albums (The Seer, To Be Kind, and The Glowing Man). Instead, Gira has revisited (intentionally or otherwise) a number of sounds familiar to both Swans earlier material and those familiar with his side project Angels of Light. Fans will likely bicker about where the influences on Leaving Meaning came from. Some will compare its gothic folk elements to the highly underrated Burning World, others will say that it takes the religious themes of Children of God and splices them with the spiritual and post-rock elements of White Light From the Mouth of Infinity, while some will claim that this is merely a SWANS flavoured Angels of Light record (alongside an infinitude of other combinations and comparisons). All of these perspectives and comparisons are true to some degree, and it is effectively impossible to talk about this album without referencing SWANS earlier material. This is easily the bands most metatextual album since Soundtracks for the Blind, which......
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Echoes and Dust leaving meaning. Review
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https://www.echoesanddust.com/2019/10/swans-leaving-meaning/ leaving meaning. by Swans Swans on the web:Facebook | Bandcamp | Release date: October 25, 2019Label: Young Gods Records by Chris Keith-Wright | October 25, 2019 | Michael Gira is a master, first and foremost, of reincarnation. Since their inception in 1982, Swans have gone through so many different iterations, both in personae and personnel, that a book must surely be forthcoming. Even the most devout follower of the artistic construct known as Swans surely needs their Wikipedia entry open on their phone if quizzed by the whomsoever strange individual that might be willing to lose themselves in the band’s morass of sonic solemnity and outright aural terror. Following the ten years and change silence since Gira announced SWANS ARE DEAD in 1997, the band famously, shockingly returned in January of 2010 with a new song posted on their MySpace page (remember MySpace?). Quite literally, drop mic. And so, began an incredible return, ushering forth a creative, epiphanic disgorgement of material; a series of albums – all critically acclaimed and rightly so – that is arguably the most consistent output of their career. Their is an interesting word to use when it comes to Swans. Almost since birth, Swans have remained a maelstrom of different masks, instruments and......
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Billboard leaving meaning. Review
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https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/8540566/swans-michael-gira-leaving-meaning-interview Swans Founder Michael Gira Talks Band's 15th Album, 'Leaving Meaning,' And 13th Lineup: 'This New Mutation Is Unique' 10/25/2019 by Tina Benitez-Eves Gira explains that the latest formation harkens back to the group’s ’90s-era congregation. “No.” That’s Michael Gira’s dry response when asked if Swans’ latest release, Leaving Meaning (Oct. 25, Mute/Young God Records), was intentionally produced with tracks that average fewer than 12 minutes — which isn’t the norm for some of the experimental act’s more epic, atmospheric-crashing chants, like the 30-plus-minute “Bring the Sun” or “The Seer.” In fact, with Swans, very little is intentional; all just comes together. Granted, there was a different dynamic within the most recent era of the band (2010-2017). It was the most solid lineup Swans had ever had, admits Gira, but everything comes to an end. That version was dissolved, and Swans have returned in yet another form for their 15th studio album. Produced and written by Gira, Leaving Meaning -- which was recorded in Iceland, Germany, New Mexico and New York -- features several former Swans members along with dozens of other handpicked musicians. A different dynamic altogether, this new incarnation is one Gira says is more similar to how he pulled the band to together back......
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Spectrum Culture leaving meaning. Review
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https://spectrumculture.com/2019/11/05/swans-leaving-meaning-review/ Swans: leaving meaning. JAKE COLE NOVEMBER 5, 2019 Gira turns inward and finds just as much depth within the contours of his band’s new sound as he did its most overwhelming energy. 4/5 In 1982, Michael Gira named his new band after swans, noting that the creatures were beautiful, but deadly. Over the course of the group’s four-decade history of regular lineup changes and stylistic reinventions, however, the bird that the band most closely resembles is the phoenix. After rising from the ashes of their entropic burnout in the mid-1990s, Michael Gira’s pet project (sporting an all-new, mostly stable lineup), transformed from a cult outfit for the most daring of noise aficionados into the unlikeliest heroes of 21st-century rock, mainstays of music festivals and subject to a level of mainstream notice and celebration they never enjoyed in their heyday. When Gira announced the dissolution of his reunion lineup following the release of 2016’s The Glowing Man, he did so with a promise to reconvene sooner than the band’s previous period of dormancy. Merely two years after wrapping the Glowing Man tour, Gira returns with a new lineup for leaving meaning, an album as clearly tethered to the preceding run of LPs as it......
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Pop Matters leaving meaning. Review
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https://www.popmatters.com/metalmatters-2019-october-2641054653.html Swans have seemingly become a phoenix-like entity, burning down to ashes through Michael Gira's creative prowess and against all the odds being reborn even more potent every time. When Swans first called it quits in 1997, few would expect their mighty return in 2010. The result was a trilogy of stellar works with The Seer, To Be Kind, and The Glowing Man. Still, in the closing moments of The Glowing Man, some signs of fatigue became noticeable, signaling that the time for another hibernation has come. Gira soon after announced the re-configuration of Swans, turning the band into a collective act featuring rotating line-ups and collaborations. The idea sounded intriguing. But the question remained as to whether Swans could still rise to the artistic levels of their latest trilogy or of the earlier days of Children of God and Soundtracks for the Blind. The answer comes with Leaving Meaning and is a resounding yes. Leaving Meaning sees the identity of Swans further dissolving, melting through the input of an array of impressive artists that join forces to create a monumental work of art. Apart from the usual suspects, previous Swans and Angels of Light members, Gira brings in the likes of experimental electronic pioneer Ben Frost, alt-neoclassical/darkwave siren Anna......