Death Grips And Swans Release New Songs Over A Busy Holiday Weekend

June 1, 2016

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I see your schwanze is as big as mine.

Memorial Day weekend is a true American past time. For most it means a three day weekend, cabin getaways, bratwursts and beers. Apparently, it’s also a great time for bands to surprise us with new music. Death Grips, always unpredictable, have released a new song hot off the heels of their newest LP Bottomless Pit. Like a skilled heavyweight boxer, not allowing his opponent to figure out his rhythm, Death Grips released a new song late Monday night; perhaps our biggest surprise was the guest feature.

“More Than The Fairy” features Les Claypool (of Primus fame), most prominently in the song’s opening moments of Primus-esque wobbly basslines. The rest of the track is what you’d expect from present-day Death Grips: breakbeat drums, noise effects, nonsensical lyrics, and that prominent bass. I was blown away by this track on my first listen. Les Claypool is a high profile feature for the group, and an exciting prospect for what they’re cooking up next.

Make that face go fire emojis.

On Friday, just three weeks before the release of their fourteenth studio album The Glowing Man, Swans released the sixth track “When Will I Return?”

Written by Swans frontman Michael Gira specifically to be sung by his wife Jennifer, “When Will I Return?” features vocals from both. Jennifer’s lyrics point cryptically to a traumatic experience she endured; Gira enters the song later with his trademark sermonistic bellow. “When Will I Return?” ignores the strongly krautrock influenced sound heard on the title track, instead building through droning, repetitive rock. This song is one of the shortest songs on The Glowing Man, running five minutes and twenty six seconds; as a comparison, the first three songs on the album total almost one hour of music!

Swans albums are more akin to transformative experiences than normal listening pastimes. The Seer was my favorite album, regardless of genre, the year it was released, and 2014’s To Be Kind is still in constant rotation for me. Michael Gira has stated this will be the last album for the current lineup on Swans. Will The Glowing Man, Swans’ third two hour opus in a row, reach the heights set by their previous two albums? We’ll find out in just a few short weeks.

THE GLOWING MAN TRACKLISTING