What? This is Roadburn Festival preview content yet again? Well, not directly, since it certainly won't get as loud, but Michael Gira and Kristof Hahn actually will be playing a show there. So I guess it counts.
But do I even need to write about the latest Swans live album - again?
SWANS - Live Rope (2CD) (2024)
I have already featured this two and a half hour coloss before, and not just anywhere, but as my number one favorite live album of 2024. But I hadn't taken pictures of the double CD then. And it simply would feel amiss not to give it some more love.
Over fifty minutes strong the album's rendition of "The Beggar" alone would already make a fantastic live release on its own, as does the at least in parts of its thirty-seven minutes remarkably ethereal "Birthing".
The twenty-five minute opener "Rope" is mostly just an incredibly patentiently rolled out crescendo. And even though the rest of the six tracks are significantly shorter in comparison - Swans love taking their time to milk their ideas to maximal effect. The dramatic craftsmanship and dynamic intensity they are creating on the spot to achieve that is bordering on the inconceivable.
Of course that's nothing new. Since the reunion in 2010 the band has constantly escalated the sheer scale of their operation while also improving on the musicality.
In consequence Swans have become an entity whose very existence is hard to believe. And there have been multiple occasion - like the 2017 live album "Deliquescence" - where I called the ultimate culmination of what they were striving for, only to be proven wrong later.
And here we go again: How could any aspect of this possibly enhanced? With the new textures of acoustic guitar and more lap steel guitar and bass instead of regular guitar Swans reach a new clarity and even greater dynamics between the wall of unfathomably mighty Noise and the brittle breaks from it, while sustaining all their monolithic impact. It's an uncompromising, overwhelming, just marvellous experience.
Swans live in 2023/2024 is just music at its best. It's as simple as that.
The only thing which could have been improved here is the presentation of drummer Phil Puleo's hilarious animal caricatures of the band. In the vinyl version this surely works, but all six pictures on one CD-format cardboard is just a little too tiny. The swirly cover artwork may not be among the most exciting of Michael Gira's creations so far, but in context with the familiar established design of the digipak it works.
All in all - and maybe even more so than some of the latest studio albums - this is a vital release for all Swans fans old and new.
Over fifty minutes strong the album's rendition of "The Beggar" alone would already make a fantastic live release on its own, as does the at least in parts of its thirty-seven minutes remarkably ethereal "Birthing".
The twenty-five minute opener "Rope" is mostly just an incredibly patentiently rolled out crescendo. And even though the rest of the six tracks are significantly shorter in comparison - Swans love taking their time to milk their ideas to maximal effect. The dramatic craftsmanship and dynamic intensity they are creating on the spot to achieve that is bordering on the inconceivable.
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| Swans live 2023 |
In consequence Swans have become an entity whose very existence is hard to believe. And there have been multiple occasion - like the 2017 live album "Deliquescence" - where I called the ultimate culmination of what they were striving for, only to be proven wrong later.
And here we go again: How could any aspect of this possibly enhanced? With the new textures of acoustic guitar and more lap steel guitar and bass instead of regular guitar Swans reach a new clarity and even greater dynamics between the wall of unfathomably mighty Noise and the brittle breaks from it, while sustaining all their monolithic impact. It's an uncompromising, overwhelming, just marvellous experience.
Swans live in 2023/2024 is just music at its best. It's as simple as that.
The only thing which could have been improved here is the presentation of drummer Phil Puleo's hilarious animal caricatures of the band. In the vinyl version this surely works, but all six pictures on one CD-format cardboard is just a little too tiny. The swirly cover artwork may not be among the most exciting of Michael Gira's creations so far, but in context with the familiar established design of the digipak it works.
All in all - and maybe even more so than some of the latest studio albums - this is a vital release for all Swans fans old and new.
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