''Soundtracks for the Blind'' is the tenth studio album by
Swans
Swans are birds of the family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Someti ...
. It was released as a
double
A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another.
Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to:
Film and television
* Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character
* ...
CD in 1996, through
Young God Records
Young God Records is an independent record label formed by Michael Gira in 1990 that specializes in experimental, avant-garde and often non genre-specific releases. The label was named after an EP released by Gira's band Swans called '' Young Go ...
. ''Soundtracks for the Blind'' was intended, as suggested by the title, to function as a "
soundtrack
A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack ...
for a non-existent film." It was the last studio album released by the band until 2010's ''
My Father Will Guide Me up a Rope to the Sky''. A
reissue of the album was released on July 20, 2018, marking the first time ''Soundtracks for the Blind'' was released on
vinyl
Vinyl may refer to:
Chemistry
* Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer
* Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation
* Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry
* Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...
.
Background
Much of the album is tied together with
audio collage works and
sample
Sample or samples may refer to:
Base meaning
* Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set
* Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal
* Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of s ...
-based textural pieces recorded at various times and places, as well as the use of previous Swans material (such as the lyrics of "Your Property" from ''
Cop'' for "YRP"). On this, frontman
Michael Gira
Michael Rolfe Gira (; born February 19, 1954) is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, author and artist. He is the main force behind the New York City musical group Swans and fronted Angels of Light. He is also the founder of ...
said in 1997:
I've always been interested in different sounds like that and listened to Brian Eno and different kinds of music that use non-musical sources often, and as I made this record I had a lot of that material: those loops and things I'd made from '81; I had vocal loops that Jarboe had made in 1985 on a little sixteen second digital delay unit which was actually the first sampler... we had these tape narrations we'd been collecting, that she got from her father's desk when he was an FBI agent – surveillance tapes; I interviewed my father because I'm interested in his life, and took a little snippet of his experiences... then we had new things we'd recorded with our 'band' from the last tour; and some stuff we did for a soundtrack for a film. I threw all those into the computer and assembled it that way. So, in some things, there's something from 1981 playing simultaneously with something from '85 playing simultaneously with something from 1996. It's cross-faded and blended and mixed so to speak in the computer, cut-up and sometimes looped and reversed.
On the Young God Records page for "Soundtracks for the Blind", Gira wrote this in 2008 about the general experience of making the album:
This double CD album has everything in there – all the ideas from Swans’ 15 years of work. There’s some contemporary recordings of the band as it existed in ‘96/7, with Larry Mullins on drums/percussion, Jarboe
Jarboe Devereaux, known mononymously as Jarboe (), is an American singer and musician who came to prominence as a member of the New York City experimental rock band Swans in 1985. Jarboe and Michael Gira, the founder of Swans, were the two consta ...
singing and playing keyboards, Vudi
Vudi is the nickname of Mark Pankler (born 22 September 1952, Chicago), guitarist with San Francisco based indie rock band American Music Club. He is also the vocalist and guitarist in San Francisco based indie rock band Clovis de Floret.
He al ...
playing electric guitar, and Joe Goldring playing bass and electric guitar, and me singing and playing electric and acoustic guitar, but there’s also a huge amount of sounds and recordings that I (and a few by Jarboe here too) collected over the years. These are reassembled, looped, mangled, and in many cases overdubbed upon to create new pieces of music. Being the "artist" in this case, it’s hard for me to talk about this one, because the memory is so laden (or burdened!) with the experience of making this thing. I guess what I’m trying to say here is I almost had a heart attack making it (slightly kidding here). It was just overwhelming. I really set my own trap, dug my own grave on this one. There was SO MUCH material to deal with, to sift through (whole trunks full of decomposing, moldy cassettes and discs with samples and sounds), and the task of making it into something coherent was at times debilitating. Really like climbing up a mountain of sand. I don’t remember why I set this goal for myself, to somehow incorporate such a ridiculously disparate amount of material. I think maybe it was so I could justify throwing all that crap into the local dump, which is what I did when I finished the album. But in the end, after centuries of picking at this huge iceberg of material with a toothpick, my trusty engineer Chris Griffin and I managed to sculpt something out of it. It actually breathes, seems to live, in most places I think. There’s a press release below written by Kurt at Atavistic (Swans label at the time), and some reviews too, which might give you a better idea of how this sounds. Anyway, in the end, I was elated with this music, both because I liked it and because finishing it meant I could finally lay Swans to rest after 15 years. In my case, I’m always happiest when I’m leaving.
Critical reception
''Soundtracks for the Blind'' has been met with acclaim by critics. ''
Alternative Press
Alternative press may refer to:
Individual publications
* ''Alternative Press'' (magazine), an American music magazine
Alternative journalism
* Alternative media
** Alternative media (U.S. political left)
** Alternative media (U.S. political ri ...
'' wrote that "Swans' out-and-out noise may have receded into quietude and somnolent hypnoscapes, but this monster of an album will leave ripples pulsing out for many years to come."
Nick Terry of ''
Terrorizer
Terrorizer is an American grindcore band formed in 1986 in Los Angeles, California. After disbanding, its members gained recognition by playing in influential extreme metal bands, such as Morbid Angel ( David Vincent, Pete Sandoval), Napalm ...
'' magazine wrote, "Gira has painstakingly recorded and produced this magnus
'sic''opus with a ferocious attention to detail. Above all, it sounds phenomenal".
The magazine later included it in their list of the "100 Most Important Albums of the Nineties".
In a retrospective review,
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
critic Ned Raggett called ''Soundtracks for the Blind'' "
wans'best album ever".
Raggett ranked the album at number 75 on his list of the best albums of the 1990s for ''
Freaky Trigger''.
Track listing
CD Tracklist
Personnel
Credits for ''Soundtracks for the Blind'' adapted from liner notes.
[Track listing and credits as per liner notes for ''Soundtracks for the Blind'' album]
;Swans
*
Michael Gira
Michael Rolfe Gira (; born February 19, 1954) is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, author and artist. He is the main force behind the New York City musical group Swans and fronted Angels of Light. He is also the founder of ...
- vocals, guitar, samples, sounds, loops, producer (all tracks except "Volcano")
*
Jarboe
Jarboe Devereaux, known mononymously as Jarboe (), is an American singer and musician who came to prominence as a member of the New York City experimental rock band Swans in 1985. Jarboe and Michael Gira, the founder of Swans, were the two consta ...
- vocals, keyboards, sounds, loops, producer (on "Volcano")
;Guest Musicians
* Joe Goldring - electric guitar, bass guitar (on tracks 3, 5, 9, 12, 14, 19, 24, 25)
*
Vudi
Vudi is the nickname of Mark Pankler (born 22 September 1952, Chicago), guitarist with San Francisco based indie rock band American Music Club. He is also the vocalist and guitarist in San Francisco based indie rock band Clovis de Floret.
He al ...
- electric guitar, acoustic guitar (on tracks 3, 5, 9, 12, 14, 19, 24, 25)
* Larry Mullins - drums, percussion, vibraphone (on tracks 3, 5, 9, 12, 14, 19, 24, 25)
* Cris Force - viola (on "Animus" and "YRP")
;Additional Personnel
*
Norman Westberg
Norman Westberg is a guitarist from Detroit best known for his work with Swans. Present through almost the entirety of the band's existence, Westberg was brought on for Swans' debut album '' Filth'' (1983) and appeared on every album through 199 ...
- additional musician, various segments
*
Algis Kizys
Algis Kizys (born September 8, 1960 in Chicago) is a New York City bass guitarist most well known for his long-time membership in New York City band Swans. First joining Swans on 1986's ''Greed'' LP, he stayed with the group through ''The Great ...
- additional musician, various segments
*
Bill Rieflin
William Frederick Rieflin (September 30, 1960 – March 24, 2020) was an American musician. Rieflin came to prominence in the 1990s mainly for his work as a drummer with groups (particularly in the industrial rock and industrial metal scene ...
- additional musician, various segments
* Christoph Hahn - additional musician, various segments
* Clinton Steele - additional musician, various segments
* Larry Lame - additional musician, mixing and recording
* Billy Anderson - mixing and recording
* Chris Griffin - mixing, mastering and recording
*
Martin Bisi
Martin Bisi (born 1961) is an American producer and songwriter.
He is known for recording important records by Sonic Youth, Swans, John Zorn, Material, Bill Laswell, Helmet, Unsane, The Dresden Dolls, Cop Shoot Cop, White Zombie, Boredoms, A ...
- mixing and recording
* Andy Ray - live engineer on "Yum-Yab Killers", "I Love You This Much", "The Final Sacrifice" and "YRP 2"
Release history
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
1996 albums
Atavistic Records albums
Swans (band) albums
Albums produced by Michael Gira
Albums produced by Jarboe
Albums produced by Billy Anderson (producer)