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  • The Line of Best Fit leaving meaning. review

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    https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/reviews/albums/swans-leaving-meaning-album-review Swans’ Leaving Meaning is a customarily monolithic work of experimental rock By Evan Lilly / 31 OCTOBER 2019, 17:01 GMT The music of Swans was always meant for bigger things. Yet even during periods of activity and hiatus, their reputation remained one that was absolute. Imbued with cult-worthy status and cryptic vision, their take on experimental rock had the ability to shift the heavens while shuttering your core. Their fifteenth LP, Leaving Meaning, proves no different – while its bulk envisions similar methods from their yesteryear, their new outing is based primarily around unhurried structure and beautiful builds. Achieved throughout with a revamped and revolving crew of guests, its vast runtime alongside Gira’s steady narrative guide us to ponder a number of things: reality, our perception of existence, the unknown, and fate. 2016 saw Swans close yet another chapter of their career with their, at the time, last LP, The Glowing Man, followed by a reissue of 1995’s The Great Annihilator and Gira's 1995 solo debut, Drainland. But Leaving Meaning serves as a brand new chapter for Swans; however you slice it, Swans continue to remain one of the select few acts of their generation who’re able to maintain a sense of relevancy. As the trend for musicians breaking their hibernation become more and more frequent,......

  • FREQ leaving meaning. review

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     http://freq.org.uk/reviews/swans-leaving-meaning/ Michael Gira has never shied away from the bareness of the bulb’s inspection – his narrative always gnaws at the fragmented prism of the self, right from the sweaty simplicity of their beginnings to the sophisticated diatribes of the later years, even including the physical force of Swans‘ recent rebirth. I’ve loved that diaristic calling, the dirgy dramatics of music behind his words apple-coring you with an air-stealing incessance. Leaving Meaning, Swans’ fifteenth album, continues the journey with a flux of guest musicians, and it’s a bold, big-sounding panorama where birth/death/love and a lot of mystical betweens are caught in the vastness of the sky and the folding grave of the soil. Things start very much in the vein of Angels Of Light, a light caress before slicing into the real meat of personal trauma that has propelled this band through all these years. The brooding bounty of “The Hanging Man” collapsing around you like an unused signature from the recent Swans sound, its carnivorous contours hyena(ing) a twisty torpidity. That incessant spine, itchy with explosive primitivism, Gira animalising his words, bulletting “I AM I am not / I AM I am not / I AM I am not!” That magnificent voice a purring......

  • Quays News REVIEW: Transformer Festival at Victoria Warehouse

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    REVIEW: Transformer Festival at Victoria Warehouse BY JAMES TICHBORNE ON MAY 29, 2017 THE FIRST Transformer event featured some incredible bands. While there were quite a few across the two stages, Quays was lucky enough to be able to catch four of the sets from the evening. To begin the night are This Is Not This Heat; a reformation of This Heat renamed as tribute to a fallen member. What a set to begin the night with. The amount of people playing on stage nearly reaches double figures and every single one of them packs so much energy into the set it’s hard not to be impressed. The band can go from soothing lullabies to utterly deranged within seconds. Their unique brand of alternative, experimental post-punk is exactly what you’d expect from an evening like this, and even though it was still early I was left in complete shock by how genuinely exciting this show was. I’d go as far as to say the music is far better than it sounds on record. Loop are not quite the follow up act they should have been. This was not to say this was bad set by any means, but their music can sometimes come......

  • The Wee Review Òran Mór review

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      Swans at Òran Mór        DAFYDD JENKINS | 22 MAY 2017 An epic and difficult swan song for legendary noise rock ensemble. What the writer John Doran once said of The Fall might easily be said of Swans: though the group is perennially lead by its own king of misery Michael Gira  (and it can be said that much of any musical project spearheaded by him is at least ‘Swans-related’, much as Mark E. Smith once claimed “If it’s me and yer granny on bongos, it’s The Fall”) – Gira isn’t necessarily coterminous with Swans. Like the shamanic leader of a mystic cult, Gira’s role is ostensibly as divine mouthpiece, speaking on behalf of some bigger cosmic being (or, as the group’s apocalyptic sound might suggest, nothingness), directing the path of Swans’ devotee-members. There is certainly something cultish going on tonight in the underground venue of Òran Mór, as the most devout followers make their way to the lip of the stage, and it’s not even half seven yet. The night’s off to a wonderfully unceremonious start with support Little Annie, a bewildering and beautiful torch singer act fronted by the prolific musician Annie Bandez, looking like a ghostly circus fortune teller with her sparkling headscarf, huge mascara-heavy eyes, and gaunt......

  • The Skinny Swans @ Òran Mór, Glasgow, 18 May

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    Swans @ Òran Mór, Glasgow, 18 May ★★★★★ Live Review by Lewis Wade Swans are known for making very lengthy, very loud music. They also have a fierce live reputation as when this music is transferred to the live setting it makes for a remarkably intense experience. Performing for over two hours, with no breaks, and only playing five songs is not your standard rock concert. 'Intense' is the operative word at a Swans show. They open with an unreleased song, The Knot, which builds very slowly (even by Swans standards) to a pummelling crescendo about 20-30 minutes in, demonstrating the 'noise' aspect of their style. From there they move through Screen Shot and the epic Cloud of Unknowing. Sandwiched between two almost-40 minute monoliths, Screen Shot comes across as an interlude – a snappy, punk cut – despite it running to almost ten minutes itself. Michael Gira is an imposing presence at every turn; even when thanking the crowd between songs he is taciturn and solemn, though he seems to greatly appreciate the support. During songs, he is wholly engrossed in the music, delivering deep, repetitive phrases like a Gregorian monk and conducting the band with his wild gesticulations.......

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