Swans - My Father....

Artist Swans
Year 2010
Label Young God Records
Genre(s) Post-Rock

This album was always going to be polarising. The very announcement of a reformation without Jarboe started some sort of proto-backlash towards the venture. Nine months on from the first announcement and finally My Father Will Guide me Up a Rope to the Sky is pushed out for the baying audience. Swans are back, but is the album any good?

Maybe saying Swans are back is slightly bold… If I picked up a goose and proclaimed it a swans perhaps it could fool people upon a cursory glance, but closer inspection will reveal that it may look the same, possibly smell the same and even have a similar make up, but it ain’t no Swan. I have no problem with Angels of Light, in fact if pressed as I’ve grown older I might say some of the Angels of Light work resonates more with me. My Father Will Guide Me up a Rope to the Sky suffers the same problem that I had with certain earlier Angels…. Works, after hearing Gira’s touching and powerful acoustic demos the songs don’t feel right being worked into full band mode. The best example I can muse on would be My Sister Said (From: I am Singing to you From my Room & Sing Other People respectively) which lost the majority of its power when rerecorded with a full band.

Far be it from me to tell Gira how to manage his projects but I can’t help feel that as he has grown older that his music has evolved past a very over the top expression of emotion into a more mature and formed emotive output, Swans still holds a place in my heart but the time has passed. Why resurrect a band to play essentially the same music you’re already doing in another project? Maybe I’m just cynical…

My Father… isn’t a bad album, not by a long shot. I do feel it pales in comparison to the more effecting solo demos on I Am Not Insane and I don’t know how well it fits in the Swans canon. Maybe I’m just subconsciously rebelling against growing old. Was it David Fincher that said “Nihilism is a really sexy idea when you’re in your twenties…”? Maybe I’m just not as extreme as I used to be. It’s not really important, you’ll either have this album or you won’t, this review is worthless…. Good old nihilism.

SeaBuckthorn/Timothy C Holehouse - Split Tape

Artist SeaBuckthorn/Timothy C Holehouse
Label None
Year 2010
Genre(s) Folk, Post-Rock

Here we have a split tape twixt SeaBuckthorn and Timothy C Holehouse. Mr. Holehouse is known to me and I've reviewed some of his previous work. In doing prep for this review I tried to find out some information about SeaBuckthorn, the Myspace mentioned on the insert is blank, listing only a country and age without further details, this is a real pity as I'm most enamoured by the track presented. The total release look wonderful, coming in a stamped envelope (Which is unfortunately sealed and not exactly the easiest to open without damaging) and then further enveloped in black crepe paper, held in place with an orange sticker.

The SeaBuckthorn side is one track, A Mystique Strenched Thin, which opens with calm drones and gently played guitar. Slowly shimmering with a slight sound like Sun City Girls. Light and pleasant, sounding like summer music to forget your problems to. The guitar ebbs against the droning tide, reverb lashed on top to send it on a spiral around the room. The guitar dies out into an electronic buzz which slowly fades out to end the track. The only complaint I have with the SeaBuckthorn side is that the electronic buzz on the end sounds out of place and a little tacked on.

The Timothy C Holehouse side starts in a very similar style, slowly picked guitar, ringing out solemnly in Summer Through the Window, a mournful edge pushing into the music. Like a lament for the lost summer that was presented on Side A. Building in speed and intensity before dying down once more. The next track, Winter's Icey Glare, continues the theme of the release, except this time being more outwardly cold and longing, almost like the solo guitar opening to Bleeding Hope by Life Neglected. The noise elements notable from previous Holehouse releases are gone on this tape, instead choosing to convey emotion and atmosphere through the laid bare guitar. Building onward before suddenly stopping.

This split is a great piece of music, though if you're looking for pure noise/drone music I'd pick up an earlier release. There's a nostalgia conveyed by both artists on the tape, one dealing with a fond reminisce and the other conveying the negative emotions from the same time period. None of the tracks would work without the other to serve as a counterpoint, as a split should be.