Swans / Swans Are Dead (live '95-'97)

Young God

Two massive and lengthy 24-track recorded discs culling the best material from their '97 Final and '95 Great Annihilator tours, dominatingly remixed and mastered by the firm hand of Michael Gira. Includes two never before recorded tracks "Feel Happiness" and "Not Alone" which are exclusive to this disc now and forever-more, and are both over fifteen minutes in length, as well a complete retrospective of the band's material, much of it presented in ways never heard before. Handomely packaged in an embossed cardstock digipack for added sonic-slay potential.  • Double-live jewelcase reissue from final Swans tours in 1995 and 1997 • Exceedingly high-quality, 24-track recordings mixed with live ambient microphones comes as close as possible to the overwhelming sonic overload that was Swans in their final period  In the 15-year existence of the now-finished group, vocalist/guitarist Michael Gira and a revolving door of contributors sought to isolate and exaggerate the limitations of music.… Swans atomize rhythm and melody by taking repetition to an extreme, almost aberrant degree, to a point where the music is transformed into a behemoth machine that simultaneously disrupts and illuminates its own internal structure…. “Blood Promise,” the syrupy 1994 ballad, is stripped to a torturous chiming drone of guitars and flaring cymbals. “I Crawled” is reworked from its original crushing plod into a tense narrative with slowly building crescendos…. Compounding several harmonies of instruments that swirl continuously in mantra form, the group creates a sound of constant elevation and rhythmic attrition…. The structure has fractured and musical order is, if only briefly, transcended. Which is exactly the aim of Swans’ music — to give the taste of ecstatic annihilation. And here, a blissful farewell. —SF Weekly, 1998   Gira & Co.’s discography is rich in masterful concert documents, and this pristinely recorded capper is no different. Over the course of a 15-year existence, Swans built up a solid reputation for blinding intensity and brutal honesty. Leader Michael Gira was so unafraid to explore the limits of the crushingly leaden and the mystically ethereal that his compositions and from-the-gut emotional frankness occasionally verged on the ridiculous. More often, his tunnel vision and severity intensified music of a singular power unmatched in its sensuous physicality and visionary depth…. Swans leave behind a legacy as the most radical aesthetic dissenters from the golden age of ’80s NYC tumult rock, yet also as the most faithful adherents to that scene’s sternness and experimental edge…. [I]t’s a rewarding final chronicle of one of the most fascinating forces ever to grace a stage…. [T]he musicianship is uniformly distinctive and flawless… [W]ith the band buried and a Huysmansian conglomeration of home stereo, virtual reality and hypnotism yet to be invented, Swans Are Dead will have to suffice as the ultimate sensory blowout. —TimeOut New York, 1998

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