![]() Swans is now a sextet (a septet if "Honorary Swan" Bill Rieflin (Ministry) is counted), and there are also many guest contributors, so though the sound here is much cleaner than in the old days, it achieves some of the same density. ![]() Even the long tracks partake of that variety "A Piece of the Sky" in particular is structured like a suite with distinct sections. On the other hand, there are concise tracks that are tuneful by Gira's dark standards, along with many that fall in between those two ends of the spectrum, and that variety, which is very much stylistic and not just a matter of length, helped keep me listening raptly through the whole two hours. "Apostate," however, is more like the band's messy early music, acerbic and forcefully punctuated. Gira combines them with the lessons of Minimalism (don't laugh some of this music sounds like notated compositions, though they aren't) - slowly evolving patterns are also powerfully hypnotic, perhaps even moreso. There's been a lot of droning indie-rock in the past decade drones are powerfully hypnotic. Over half the album's timing is taken up by three tracks: "The Seer" (32:14), "A Piece of the Sky" (19:10), and "Apostate" (23:01), the latter two closing the album. The most obvious evolutionary change is the great length of several tracks. It's the culmination of every previous Swans album as well as any other music I've ever made, been involved in or imagined." Gira states, "The Seer took 30 years to make. On The Seer, Swans' sound continues to evolve. When leader Michael Gira revived Swans after a 13-year hiatus, the result, 2010's My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky, was not a rehash of the band's past styles - which, summarized simplistically, would be loud, abrasive noise for its first five years, then for the next eleven, a quieter, more nuanced sound (though with equally disturbing lyrics) that emphasized female vocalist Jarboe - but rather a combination of them. The long and acclaimed history of this fabled Lower East Side band gets a new chapter with this two-CD, nearly two-hour studio album.
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