Swans
I Am The Tower
(Mute/Young God)
The ever-evolving and dissolving Swans releases this salvo of blazing guitar drones into the night air, laying the ground bare for their next album to find purchase on a barren planet. It's nearly 4 min in before Michael begins chanting the ritual, harkening back to the cult-y early days of this great enterprise. This single is 20 minutes long, so it's best to do this like a travelogue. Just as you are squirming in your pew, the drums signal the commencement of the great ascension. The guitars keep shooting off sparks. The alarms coalesce into a harmonious mourn. Horns and a choir eventually emerge from the smoke. The weirdest part is at around the 13-minute mark, where this turns into a floor stomping anthem, sounding not unlike Joy Division working out "Heroes" at the practice space, with the repeated title being their "Scrambled Eggs." It's a journey, one that feels purposely uncompleted, because they all are. Also, Swans hint at maybe calling it quits for real after this album so they might as well destroy the universe as they go.
Essential Information: I Am The Tower is out now on Mute/Young God.
Swans seventeenth studio album, Birthing, is due for release on Mute / Young God Records (N America) on 30 May on triple vinyl (in a brown chipboard sleeve, double CD (in a brown chipboard digi-pack), and digitally. Initial pressings of the triple vinyl and CD editions come with a bonus DVD featuring ‘Swans Live 2024 (Rope) The Beggar’, a live concert film from the last Swans US tour, plus Christopher Nicholson’s documentary from Michael Gira’s solo tour in 2022 entitled ‘I Wonder If I’m Singing What You’re Thinking Me To Sing’.
Main Image: Michael Gira performing with Swans at Atlanta Variety Playhouse 2024. Photo credit: Reese Cann
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