Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Swans - Cop / Young God


Label: K.422
Year: 1992

You already know this, but I will say it anyway, the album Cop was released in 1984, as was the 12" ep Young God, but in 1992 those records were remastered and repackaged into a single package.
You also already know this, but I will say it as well, Swans (at least these early recordings) make no attempt at helping you feel "good". They make feel bad music for bad feeling people, all boom/thud/crash/grumble/squall (repeat until tape runs out or nosebleed becomes life threatening, and only then pause long enough to insert live ammunition into nostrils to control discharge), with nary a chorus, or optimistic swell in sight. This is industrial music as filtered through a downtown NYC squat ripe with malcontents. No Wave era art students, post punk agitators, and functioning addicts. Bleak, absent of any light, covered in tar, defiant, and ugly.
This record is my personal favorite of the (lengthy and convoluted) Swans discography, probably because it seems the "heaviest" in the traditional sense of the word. It's basically Killing Joke and Godflesh taking turns hammering on the back of your neck with a crowbar (wrapped in a towel of course...don't want a mess on the carpet).
You already know that though.

DL


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi. Any hope for a reup on this? Cheers.

-Xtm

 
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