To Be Kind
sees experimental post-rock titans Swans continue with the sound developed in
their 2012 release, The Seer. Released
under the band’s own label, Young God
Records, To Be Kind can only be
described as a refined savagery, with unsettling metronomic tracks shackling
listener and music together with its dark instrumentals and near flawless
structure.
Running for an arduous two hours
(including a 34 minute track less than half way through the album), To Be Kind is more of a battle than your
standard 'headphones on the metro' listening experience. Many of the songs are
structurally dependant on repetition as vocalist Michael Gira constantly sings
the same line over and over with little variation - all the while the music
lurking into crescendo at a snail's pace. This instils a bizarre metronomic
effect that lingers in the head of the listener in the same way that a clock ticks;
only Gira successfully replaces that clock with the horrifying chants of a dark
evangelist screaming “FUCK!” over and over.
However it's not all following a
single formula - tracks like Oxygen
work like a perversive throwback to the band’s sound circa 1990s, taking the
same catchy rock sound but twisting it with catatonic vocals and rhythmic stabs
of noise-rock riffs. I’m Just a Little
Boy (for Chester Burnett) divides the album by putting a calm, yet eerie blues
track into the fray and the closer/title track To Be Kind is provides a mellow, bittersweet end to an otherwise
chaotic album.
What works best for the album is that
outside of all the strangeness in the vocal styles, 30 minute long songs, cult
chanting and other general weirdness - there's a successful amalgamation of
blues, post-rock, noise-rock and experimental themes here which shows that
there are still bands who are willing to throw something into the rock genre
that isn’t about haircuts and familiarity. To
Be Kind may be the antithesis of conventional music, but to those willing
to pay attention it’s a goldmine for pushing conventional boundaries and sating
one’s curiosity.
BY THOMAS BRAND
Best Track: She Loves Us!
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: RUSSIAN CIRCLES, early LIARS, NEUROSIS
In A Word: Horrifying
Here's a submission I made to Beat Mag. Might as well keep something on retainer here hey?
