Latest Release
- JUN 23, 2023
- 11 Songs
- To Be Kind · 2014
- To Be Kind · 2014
- The Seer · 2012
- To Be Kind · 2014
- To Be Kind · 2014
- The Beggar · 2023
- To Be Kind · 2014
- Soundtracks For the Blind · 1996
- Soundtracks For the Blind · 1996
- White Light from the Mouth of Infinity · 1991
Essential Albums
- At two hours in length, To Be Kind shows Michael Gira’s Swans are as serious, demanding and extreme in 2014 as they were back in the early ‘80s when their music was either greatly praised or harshly condemned. There is little middle ground for this group and anyone spooked by the 12-1/2 minute Howlin’ Wolf Tribute “Just A Little Boy” should probably not go forward. However, for fans of slow, gothic, death-rattle Swans, the track is just one sign that the band’s sessions with John Congleton at Sonic Ranch, outside El Paso, Texas were an overwhelming success. Much of the material was developed live during the tours of 2012-13 and explains why there is so much to sift through. Special guests such as Little Annie, who duets with Gira on “Some Things We Do,” Cold Specks, whose multi-tracked vocals guide “Bring the Sun” and honorary Swan Bill Rieflin filled out the sessions that were recorded with a solid sextet in place. “A Little God In My Hands” adds a touch of Krautrock to its elliptical groove. The 34-minute “Bring the Sun/ Tousaaint L’Ouverture” is a complex epic worthy of their reputation.
- Noise-rock behemoths Swans’ final record of the 20th century—they would go dark for the next 14 years—broke sharply with the rest of their ’90s output, in part because it’s essentially a Michael Gira solo project. Far from its pummeling predecessors, this ambitious double album is a fever dream of electronic sketches interwoven with found sounds and Dictaphone remnants. Bits of full-band jams and cacophonous live scraps peek through the fog, only to be swallowed up by the ambient swirl. Swans’ most experimental project, it’s a heady, enveloping listen, while the odd rave-up—like “Blood Section,” jet-engine loud—reminds us that they’re among the world’s heaviest.
- 2023
- 2019
- 2016
- 2015
- 2014
- 2012
Artist Playlists
- Visionary, immersive, and unrelenting sounds from this New York band.
- No wave lifers raised an unholy ruckus echoed by all manner of noise and metal.
Singles & EPs
Live Albums
Compilations
- 2015
- 1999
About Swans
One of the most uncompromising bands ever, Swans make music that alternates bleak, brutal, noise rock with spiritual, ethereal folk and intensely loud live performances. Emerging from the downtown New York no wave scene, the Michael Gira-led band's confrontational shows supported dissonant, repetitive records including 1983's Filth. The dirge-like industrial of 1986's Greed introduced a more atmospheric sound with the addition of vocalist/songwriter Jarboe. 1991's White Light from the Mouth of Infinity was significantly more melodic and elaborately produced, even as the group's concerts remained spectacles. They disbanded in 1997, following Soundtracks for the Blind. Gira re-formed Swans in 2010. This incarnation produced the group's most commercially successful work, To Be Kind, in 2014. Gira returned Swans to an alternating lineup in 2017, subsequently working with a revolving cast on 2019's leaving meaning. and 2023's The Beggar, both less intense than their previous work but similarly hypnotic and experimental.
- ORIGIN
- New York, NY, United States
- FORMED
- 1982
- GENRE
- Alternative