Under Over: April 2011

Michael Gira is an iconoclast. A true original. Not much I can say about him hasn't been said before. I am generally new to Swans. Having constantly heard about them uttered in the same breath with Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers, Flipper, and similarly minded noise rock acts of the 80's, I never found time to delve into the vast catalog. They grew out of the stew of no wave in the early 80's downtown New York scene and soon transcended to different levels.
I had heard bits and pieces of their earlier work which was extremely brutal and slow moving monolith of harsh screeching guitars and bass with drums that were laden in reverb and beating out a constant four four beat. Beating as in beaten, the drums are the force behind Swans. The band eventually added female vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, Jarboe, who lent a cinematic and romantic quality to the music and lead the band into a more varied style. This, all while keeping a signature sound that was unmistakably their own. The dirge of blues music, with dark beauty and otherworldy sounds are some things I think of when I hear Swans, as well as the ability to move the listener to great joy or sadness. Swans also seem to have influenced the cosmic sludge metal of acts like Earth and the Melvins. This may just be what I am hearing, but it comes through in these bands slow moving face melting jams. Michael Gira disbanded Swans with a final album Soundtracks for the Blind which is an amazing testament to the career of the band as it contained every type of sound they had created in one document of new music.
Gira went on to have his own label Young God Records put out records by the likes of Devendra Banhart, Wooden Wand, Akron/Family, and his own band Angels of Light. This past year Gira decided that he had a batch of songs that needed to be made by Swans. This album is entitled My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky. I believe this to be Michael Gira's best work to date. It is a moving beautiful epic of sound that has so many false releases in the tension that you will get blue balls and or blue vaj as the heavy jams seep into your skull. Enough talking, here it is...