Michael Gira On Swans’ My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky
The Quietus , July 30th, 2010 07:39
Michael Gira has reactivated his No Wave/industrial/apocalyptic folk project SWANS for the first time in 13-years, so who better to ask than him for a track-by-track review…
No Words/No Thoughts
Listen to ‘No Words/No Thoughts’ here
The Quietus says: What appears at first to be field recordings of church bells (but is actually percussion) and squealing, workshop band saws slicing through timber set the tone for what is a serious but beautiful album. A statement of labour and love.
Michael Gira says: “I think the intro to this song should have been longer. I showed cowardice here. it should have lasted 10 minutes at least, instead of the 3 1/2 minutes it is now.
Ideally this song would sound like a steady gale force wind of hydrochloric acid. The guitars should wipe your mind clean. the words state one thing, and also the opposite. sometimes all points of view seem equally true simultaneously. I wanted my voice to sound like the weightless vocals of certain very early Pink Floyd songs here, but it’s hopeless with a voice as cantankerous as mine
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So now we’re off on a new journey, by reigniting swans I’ve unlocked the trunk where I’d trapped my demon brother. Now that he’s out again I am wrestling with him and am determined this time to not only kill him, but all his friends and family as well. I’ve enlisted my comrades Norman Westberg, Christoph Hahn, Phil Puleo, Thor Harris and Chris Pravdica as the primary soldiers in this quest.