Swans – The Glowing Man (Young God Records 2016)
This is the latest addition to Swans‘ outstanding discography, fronted by the equally unique Michael Gira. Almost 2 hours of music, a triple LP with 8 tracks! But what amazing tracks! This new opus is probably my favourite since their comeback with the great ‘My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky’ in 2010. As a reminder, the band were at their peak in the 80’s and 90’s and were then unheard of for 14 years. The tracks take us on a journey into a fantasy world, like on a roller coaster ride. The fabulous ‘Frankie M’ reflects this to perfection. Run to your closest record shop now!
Molecule – 60°43’ Nord (Ed Banger Records, Mile Feuilles 2015)
Behind Molécule lies a crazy project headed up by artist Romain Delahaye, who ventured out to the North Sea on a fishing boat (hence the title of this LP) to record his new album. Here are a few figures associated with this adventure to give you an idea of the scale of this project: 34 days out at sea, 4,896 miles covered, 17 metre-high waves (!!!), 200 kilos of equipment and 13 hours of recording… And we can say that the human and artistic challenge is a real success. He used the sounds he recorded on board his boat (waves crashing against the hull, engines, etc.) to deliver this music that literally takes the listener into a different world, like the evocative track ‘Abysses’. Definitely worth listening to, if only for the feat. Amazing.
And since it is the summer, here are two top picks, just for the beauty of it:
First of all Angel Olsen with a track from the new album coming out in September: ‘Shut Up Kiss Me’, very promising! The video and track are equally as great. I’ll let you decide for yourselves =)
And then the remix of Kanye West’s excellent ‘The Life of Pablo’ by Lido named ‘The Life of Peder’.
