Album: The Seer
Artist: Swans
Born: Alphabet City, New York
Released: August 2012
Genre: Rock
With it being Christmas Day, I thought it would have been nice to write about my favourite Christmas album, but The Seer by Swans definitely isn't that. Given this blog's chronological nature, it was just impossible to find something that worked with the dates. The album that came closest is Sufjan Steven's Silver & Gold, one of my favourite Christmas records of recent times, along with Bob Dylan's Christmas In The Heart (including the inspired It Must Be Santa). Swans don't seem to be the sort of band that would release a Christmas album. When I saw them live earlier in 2014 at the Green Man festival, it was like being faced with an army of advancing orcs. What impressed me so much abound the band while watching them live, especially frontman Michael Gira, was the attention to detail and perfectionism. The sound checking before they started seemed to take an absolute age, and Gira was quietly raging about the group before overstaying their welcome. This anger was translated into a ferocious performance of To Be Kind, the title track of their most recent LP released in 2014. A friend of mine warned me that the experience would be "draining" and he was right -- after an hour or so, I had to leave the tent with my head spinning and my ears ringing. I know The Who's 1976 gig at Charlton's home ground of The Valley often gets billed as the loudest gig of all time, but surely Swans have broken that record. Gira chose the name of the band very precisely, saying that "swans are majestic, beautiful looking creatures. With really ugly temperaments." The current line-up really is majestic to observe live, including charismatic drummer Thor Harris and the statuesque figure of Norman Westberg on guitar.
Rock music has been in a sorry state for many years now, but Swans are one of the few truly experimental bands left, carrying the torch for experimental New York noise rock, from the drone of the Velvet Underground to the sound collages of Sonic Youth. Gira travelled from his LA home to New York in the early 80s, just as the No Wave movement was beginning to fade, and tried to fill the "void" with his own unique take on noise rock. The Seer, released around 30 years after the band started, is the culmination of that life's work. Picking out highlights on an album that clocks in at close to 2hrs is pretty pointless, but the title track is breathtaking in its expansive vision and sheer intensity, but there also beautifully quiet songs like Song For A Warrior, while The Seer Returns also offers some respite. These are mildly cathartic moments amid the prevailing mood of dissonance and repetition, intense rhythms and dark themes (slavery, innocence). That repetition designed to mesmerise the listener is something that musicians from James Brown to Can have used to devastating effect over the years, and Gira is a modern master. His choice of collaborators on The Seer is also inspired, with Yeah Yeah Yeahs vocalist Karen O starring on Song For A Warrior, while Low's Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker, Ben Frost (an electronic music producer who's collaborated with Tim Hecker) and Mercury Rev musician, Grasshopper, all feature too. There are some modern rock bands, like Mogwai, that get close to producing the similar atmospherics to the Swans, but Gira really is in a class of his own. Like a modern-day Howlin' Wolf, he's staring into the abyss and conjuring up some infernal grooves.
With it being Christmas Day, I thought it would have been nice to write about my favourite Christmas album, but The Seer by Swans definitely isn't that. Given this blog's chronological nature, it was just impossible to find something that worked with the dates. The album that came closest is Sufjan Steven's Silver & Gold, one of my favourite Christmas records of recent times, along with Bob Dylan's Christmas In The Heart (including the inspired It Must Be Santa). Swans don't seem to be the sort of band that would release a Christmas album. When I saw them live earlier in 2014 at the Green Man festival, it was like being faced with an army of advancing orcs. What impressed me so much abound the band while watching them live, especially frontman Michael Gira, was the attention to detail and perfectionism. The sound checking before they started seemed to take an absolute age, and Gira was quietly raging about the group before overstaying their welcome. This anger was translated into a ferocious performance of To Be Kind, the title track of their most recent LP released in 2014. A friend of mine warned me that the experience would be "draining" and he was right -- after an hour or so, I had to leave the tent with my head spinning and my ears ringing. I know The Who's 1976 gig at Charlton's home ground of The Valley often gets billed as the loudest gig of all time, but surely Swans have broken that record. Gira chose the name of the band very precisely, saying that "swans are majestic, beautiful looking creatures. With really ugly temperaments." The current line-up really is majestic to observe live, including charismatic drummer Thor Harris and the statuesque figure of Norman Westberg on guitar.
Rock music has been in a sorry state for many years now, but Swans are one of the few truly experimental bands left, carrying the torch for experimental New York noise rock, from the drone of the Velvet Underground to the sound collages of Sonic Youth. Gira travelled from his LA home to New York in the early 80s, just as the No Wave movement was beginning to fade, and tried to fill the "void" with his own unique take on noise rock. The Seer, released around 30 years after the band started, is the culmination of that life's work. Picking out highlights on an album that clocks in at close to 2hrs is pretty pointless, but the title track is breathtaking in its expansive vision and sheer intensity, but there also beautifully quiet songs like Song For A Warrior, while The Seer Returns also offers some respite. These are mildly cathartic moments amid the prevailing mood of dissonance and repetition, intense rhythms and dark themes (slavery, innocence). That repetition designed to mesmerise the listener is something that musicians from James Brown to Can have used to devastating effect over the years, and Gira is a modern master. His choice of collaborators on The Seer is also inspired, with Yeah Yeah Yeahs vocalist Karen O starring on Song For A Warrior, while Low's Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker, Ben Frost (an electronic music producer who's collaborated with Tim Hecker) and Mercury Rev musician, Grasshopper, all feature too. There are some modern rock bands, like Mogwai, that get close to producing the similar atmospherics to the Swans, but Gira really is in a class of his own. Like a modern-day Howlin' Wolf, he's staring into the abyss and conjuring up some infernal grooves.
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