Latest Release
- 23 JUN 2023
- 11 Songs
- The Beggar · 2023
- Children of God / World of Skin · 1997
- To Be Kind · 2014
- To Be Kind · 2014
- To Be Kind · 2014
- Swans Are Dead: Live '95-'97 · 1998
- White Light from the Mouth of Infinity · 1991
- The Beggar · 2023
- The Beggar · 2023
- Children of God · 1987
Essential Albums
- 2014
- Noise-rock behemoths Swans’ final record of the 20th century—they would go dark for the next 14 years—broke sharply with the rest of their ’90s output, in part because it’s essentially a Michael Gira solo project. Far from its pummelling predecessors, this ambitious double album is a fever dream of electronic sketches interwoven with found sounds and Dictaphone remnants. Bits of full-band jams and cacophonous live scraps peek through the fog, only to be swallowed up by the ambient swirl. Swans’ most experimental project, it’s a heady, enveloping listen, while the odd rave-up—like “Blood Section”, jet-engine loud—reminds us that they’re among the world’s heaviest.
Artist Playlists
- Visionary, immersive and unrelenting sounds from this New York band.
- No wave lifers raised an unholy ruckus echoed by all manner of noise and metal.
Singles & EPs
- 2014
Compilations
About Swans
One of the most uncompromising bands ever, Swans make music that alternates bleak, brutal, noise rock with spiritual, ethereal folk and intensely loud live performances. Emerging from the downtown New York no wave scene, the Michael Gira-led band's confrontational shows supported dissonant, repetitive records including 1983's Filth. The dirge-like industrial of 1986's Greed introduced a more atmospheric sound with the addition of vocalist/songwriter Jarboe. 1991's White Light from the Mouth of Infinity was significantly more melodic and elaborately produced, even as the group's concerts remained spectacles. They disbanded in 1997, following Soundtracks for the Blind. Gira re-formed Swans in 2010. This incarnation produced the group's most commercially successful work, To Be Kind, in 2014. Gira returned Swans to an alternating lineup in 2017, subsequently working with a revolving cast on 2019's leaving meaning. and 2023's The Beggar, both less intense than their previous work but similarly hypnotic and experimental.
- ORIGIN
- New York, NY, United States
- FORMED
- 1982
- GENRE
- Alternative