Quote from: Bloated Slutbag on June 06, 2014, 08:59:34 PM
Quote from: eyestrain on June 05, 2014, 03:42:25 AM
Swans - To Be Kind (Young God): This was nothing like the wet fart I found their recent live show to be, but I'm also definitely just burnt out on Gira's stardom. ... and while it's cool to listen to, I guess I'm just over the hype. Not bad. Not great.
That's an interesting comment. I generally make an effort to insulate myself from the hype to which you refer and perhaps that's why To Be Kind is for me much more immediate – fewer steaming piles of bullshit to wade through. (No worries, though. I've got buttloads of other bullshit to swim in, self-ladled and otherwise.) I would say this is the most Swans-sounding Gira has managed in a long time. Mind you, in my warped view the last true Swans album was New Mother (under the Angels Of Light incarnation), where the two prior Swans Rehammered offerings, while for me enjoyable, were more like an extension of where Angels were going in their last album (a direction I did not particularly like). Years back, if someone had told me TBK was the follow-up to, say, Children Of God, or some of the later albums, including Soundtracks, I wouldn't have batted an ear. In any event, I have no real expectations from Gira at this point. Even Swans Half-Nailed would pin me to the stake and burn me to a crisp. And that he now seems to be moving in the right direction is pure gravy (at least, I hope it's gravy...)
Admittedly, it was aimless of me to even mention the hype, although reading Gira's pompous, but interesting nonetheless, interviews always seems to be the number one thing making me hype the music up. I've played the album a few times since, and while I enjoy it more than I thought at first, I don't think I'll replay this much. Anyway...
Skin -
The World Of Skin (Product Inc./Rough Trade): With all my pondering on Swans, I wanted to dig through some related favorites. Whether this is aurally successful or not - there's a few duds (Iggy cover...ugh) - it feels like a much more earnest and "real" look inside a person. Not just a selfish attempt at "ecstacy" or whatever seems to be the current trope.
Jarboe'd
Swans was definitely my last exploration into their universe, and while I don't think I enjoy
her music much, she can sometimes be the greatest accompaniment to
Gira (and crew). There's something
accidentally timeless in some of these songs. Just gotta keep the skip button near a few times.
Kassel Jaeger -
Ritual De La Mort Du Soleil (Unfathomless): More like
Toxic Cosmopolitanism (although slightly less "digital" still) than his energized and subtly vicious recordings. Calm, perplexing use of outdoor/natural sounds in the beginning of evening. On a long train ride today and this is the best thing I've heard.
Allerseelen -
Heimliche Welt (Ahnstern): Running up with
Stirb Und Werde as my favorite piece from Kadmon. Occasionally intense, almost-always fascinating album of collected sounds without any of the "caricature-ness" of many of the recent albums. Again, an individual that can be rather fascinating that somehow makes me seek out current works even though I
might be guaranteed to feel "meh" about it.
Knækkede Stemmer -
Første Portræt (Et Hult In Menneske) (Järtecknet): Been a while since I spun this. Better than I remember - or the mood is perfect today, I dunno. So bleak, so miserable, so wonderful.
V/A -
Sacral Symphony (EE Tapes): Sometimes I struggle to stay awake with this one; very entrancing. The same way I am with many of the
Steven R. Smith works that I adore. I assume, judging by certain characteristics of the tracks, that the artists are manipulating or recreating sacred music.
Cisfinitum (whom I rarely enjoy) definitely is the highlight for me - reminds me of the totally ignored
Silbernacht disc on Ajna.
1000schøen - never heard anything else - takes the silver with a nice electroacoustic-ish piece.
Troum is surprisingly my least preferred, but it's still decent.
