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Product Description
CD Description
The Seer took 30 years to make. It s the culmination of every previous Swans album as well as any other music I ve ever made, been involved in, or imagined. But it s unfinished, like the songs themselves. It s one frame in a reel. The frames blur, blend and will eventually fade. The songs began on an acoustic guitar, then were fleshed out with (invaluable) help from my friends, then were further tortured and seduced in rehearsals, live, and in the studio, and now they await further cannibalism and force-feeding as we prepare to perform some of them live, at which point they ll mutate further, endlessly, or perhaps be discarded for a while. Despite what you might have heard or presumed, my quest is to spread light and joy through the world. My friends in Swans are all stellar men. Without them I m a kitten, an infant. Our goal is the same: ecstasy! Michael Gira
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
By Gannon
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Audio CD
The latest Swans LP is an absolute monster entirely befitting of their and, in particular, Michael Gira's fearsome reputation. Two hours in length, it's an uncompromising, fiercely intense statement and exactly the sort of forward-thinking missive demanded by the band's reforming two years ago. Simply put, The Seer outstrips 2010's nevertheless impressive My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky in a single bound, reducing it in retrospect to but a necessary stepping stone on the road to an album that has reputedly been 30 years in the making.
Certainly Gira hasn't pushed himself, his band or his listeners this hard for a couple of decades. Take the almost intolerable screech-drone that opens for the foreboding gallop of the ever-intensifying 30+ minute title track. Gira's manic chants and doom-laden screams then swirl amidst bludgeoning repeats, technical drum skitters courtesy of Thor Harris and exploding time signatures all recorded at suffocating volume. The track latterly decays at a punishingly slow pace, becoming in fairness a bit of an endurance test. Indeed with a touch of judicious editing here and there, a compressed edit of The Seer may well have been looking at close to a perfect ten.
Yet The Seer is not some extremophile's paradise, rather a record of extremes that reels from rousing battle sequences to pretty patterning and then on to crushing noise. It's thus far from beyond those that dwell with any frequency as such experimental depths, but periods of extended antisocial drone and, for example, the blunt fists of "Mother Of The World" are liable to send certain curious indie types scuttling for their mothers.... Read more ›
Certainly Gira hasn't pushed himself, his band or his listeners this hard for a couple of decades. Take the almost intolerable screech-drone that opens for the foreboding gallop of the ever-intensifying 30+ minute title track. Gira's manic chants and doom-laden screams then swirl amidst bludgeoning repeats, technical drum skitters courtesy of Thor Harris and exploding time signatures all recorded at suffocating volume. The track latterly decays at a punishingly slow pace, becoming in fairness a bit of an endurance test. Indeed with a touch of judicious editing here and there, a compressed edit of The Seer may well have been looking at close to a perfect ten.
Yet The Seer is not some extremophile's paradise, rather a record of extremes that reels from rousing battle sequences to pretty patterning and then on to crushing noise. It's thus far from beyond those that dwell with any frequency as such experimental depths, but periods of extended antisocial drone and, for example, the blunt fists of "Mother Of The World" are liable to send certain curious indie types scuttling for their mothers.... Read more ›
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By N. Walker
Format:Audio CD
Much has been made of Michael Gira's observation prior to this release, that this is the sum-total of 30 years of SWANS development. More interesting is that he then says its impossible to record a definitive 'version' of his vision because it develops each & every time its played/performed. Take, for example the We Rose From Your Bed ... version of old classic I Crawled - its come a long way from the aggressive beast it once was but the kernel of the original is there. I was almost frightened to play The Seer for the first time, so much the anticipation . Its almost overwhelming at first, but don't let the two-hour time-frame put you off. This record is beautifully paced & while there is copious amounts of cacophony, dissonance & repetition, there is also respite, space and beauty. In spades. Its one of those records that will be something different to each & every person that takes the journey through it. In 'The Seer', the tremendous 30-minute centre=piece of the first disc is some of the most remarkable & challenging music Gira has ever written & its awesome in the very essence of the word. Intense but not overwhelming, it takes you in a psychedelic fugue up & up & ... well you have to be there.
In 'Song For A Warrior' you find perhaps the most beautiful SONG that Michael Gira has ever written. And in the album's titanic two closers, is that quintessence of SWANS that maybe, he's been talking about.
The Seer is certainly not for the faint-hearted. But in Gira's words "the goal is joy" , & The Seer is certainly a joy to behold.
In 'Song For A Warrior' you find perhaps the most beautiful SONG that Michael Gira has ever written. And in the album's titanic two closers, is that quintessence of SWANS that maybe, he's been talking about.
The Seer is certainly not for the faint-hearted. But in Gira's words "the goal is joy" , & The Seer is certainly a joy to behold.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Takes a while to sink in- but you probably already know that.
Whirls around elements of Sonic Youth, Velvet Underground, Branca, Can and pieces of jagged debris from a melee of proto industrial bands to create a black jazzmic colossus. In other words, it does not sounds like anything else.
Sounds come and go, shifting across the speakers, drones, soothing female voices combining in layers of deadbeat patter. Michael wanly intones rather than screams, whilst the songs foundations are held down and riveted by the muscle of drums thrashing out a constant "shape," to hold the electric storm.
Delivered and wrapped in a world weary montone, focusing on various disembodied human emotional states - emitting the cry of a vast, forever stretching, silent empty universe, where meaninglessness is seen as a residing core value. In response, humans vainly build constructs to make sense of their distorted self-reflection.
The album in its two hour entirety can be seen as more than a positive reply.
Whirls around elements of Sonic Youth, Velvet Underground, Branca, Can and pieces of jagged debris from a melee of proto industrial bands to create a black jazzmic colossus. In other words, it does not sounds like anything else.
Sounds come and go, shifting across the speakers, drones, soothing female voices combining in layers of deadbeat patter. Michael wanly intones rather than screams, whilst the songs foundations are held down and riveted by the muscle of drums thrashing out a constant "shape," to hold the electric storm.
Delivered and wrapped in a world weary montone, focusing on various disembodied human emotional states - emitting the cry of a vast, forever stretching, silent empty universe, where meaninglessness is seen as a residing core value. In response, humans vainly build constructs to make sense of their distorted self-reflection.
The album in its two hour entirety can be seen as more than a positive reply.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By ofer chen
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
the dvd is have nice box.and the music very special.i hope my freind in israel will buy this cd&dvd for seer.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Bobby
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I can't put into words how amazing this album is. It's not 'long' by the way, it's exactly the length it needed to be.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
A great album of intelligent songwriting and epic prog/ shoegaze meanderings. Never in a hurry to get to the point,...relaxed, confident epicness.
3 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By Don Clark
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
It's very simple, if you like Swans get this!! If you don't like Swans you won't care how brilliant this is.
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