So tell me Sup Forums, what exactly was the "point" of early Swans?

So tell me Sup Forums, what exactly was the "point" of early Swans?

Google "No-wave"

and whats the "point" of later Swans?

>get your actual music discussion off my board!

Make music that makes you feel like you're in a room with a shitload of sledgehammers

>me asking things that I can google myself easily like a retard is "discussion"

the swans suck

The Sonic Youth > The Swans tiggitybeeheitch fomalia

what's the point of anything?

damn.............

googling no wave was a terrible suggestion in the first place

To make good music

'No wave was a short-lived avant-garde scene that emerged in the late 1970s in downtown New York City.[3][4] In part a reaction against punk rock's recycling of traditionalist rock and roll cliches, no wave musicians instead experimented with noise, dissonance and atonality in addition to a variety of non-rock genres, including free jazz and funk, while often reflecting an abrasive, confrontational and nihilistic worldview.[5][6][7] In the later years of the scene, it adopted a more playful, danceable aesthetic inspired by disco, early hip hop, and world music sources.[8]

The term "no wave" was a pun based on the rejection of commercial new wave music, and first became used in downtown New York City concurrent with the 1981 show, "New York/New Wave" that had been curated by the artist/curator Diego Cortez.[9] The movement would last a relatively short time but profoundly influenced the development of independent film, fashion and visual art.[10]'

The fact that you can't figure out what Swans is criticizing just by looking at the first four album covers is embarrassing.

So it's a rejection of commercialism and it's nihilstic? Great, i could have told you that before coming here.
By the way, their EP is the only release that's actual no wave.

It's a rejection of the industrial society.

By the way, no-wave is a loose term which doesn't actually have an official boundary, and Filth is generally considered no wave.

By the way, stab your eye into a nail.

...

Yes, this is more interesting.
Cashgrab from hipsters perhaps?

What's the point of any band you dumb kike?

>It's a rejection of the industrial society.
So to recap, this insufferable prick took four posts give up one bit of information, insulting me all the while. Real great job everyone. Fucking kill yourself, really.

Bunch of kids having fun making harsh noise, then evolving to a more refined band.

be hard

Swans is my favorite band, and I doubt my words will do it justice because I kinda suck at finding the right words, but here's my attempt to explain in terms of what's happening musically:

Early Swans is very much based on submission through brutal force. It tries to represent oppression in general in as physical a form as possible. So from this we can realize that the music's merit itself comes entirely through sheer visceral intensity, not in any kind of cerebral reward attained through complex melodic/harmonic progression. In order to attain this physical, visceral sound, many choices related to how the music was done were made. Thus when it comes to arrangement, looping, mixing, and hard hitting percussion they would try to make their sound as large/heavy as possible at that time. Keep in mind this doesn't mean full on power electronics style distortion as that just ends up being noisy without being as physical/visceral. These arrangements make music that thus sound far more percussive (and thus kinda groovy) to make something that's more physical sounding, which is why the main focus was on the rhythm section, and why Gira's vocals were almost like loud percussive shouts themselves. Then it's all put into a song structure that's very repetitive to make it feel like the music is constantly, almost endlessly beating the listener down. It doesn't let on. There isn't hope. Just submission. This is really where it differs from a lot punk and metal (other visceral/physical genres) because the music's not driving forward, resulting in a "life's constantly sucking every day, and there's no hope for change." Very dystopian.

Hope that makes sense.

Anyone else seeing them at the Roundhouse Saturday? We should totally not meet up because fuck you.

Saw them in Leeds on Sat. Incredible show, best of theirs i've seen (out of four shows).

Very good description. Thanks

Ah cool, good to hear, it's my first time seeing them

Bring earplugs, its so loud you're gonna be feeling things inside your body.

Oh yeah always do - I usually go to autism metal gigs, so they're a necessity.

>tfw the earplugs seemed to do nothing at KTL and Sunn O)))