Swans Reissue Debut Album Filth

On October 28, Michael Gira’s label Young God will reissue Swans‘ debut album Filth. It’s the 1983 album’s first vinyl pressing in 24 years, and it was remastered by Doug Henderson (who mastered both To Be Kind and The Seer). More early Swans records will be reissued in the coming year.

The album will come packed with two reproductions of concert posters from that era. Gira also shared a lengthy statement about Filth:

This is all slabs of sound, rhythm and screaming/testifying. What more do you need? In a way, it was a reaction against Punk (and just about any other music you can think of), and the conservative notion that 3 chords were somehow necessary.

I used to deny it vehemently at the time, but No Wave (I “hated” that scene too, for some reason I can’t remember now) played a big role as the germ from which this music grew, along with The Stooges and Throbbing Gristle, of course. I wanted Swans to be “heavier” though—I wanted the music to obliterate—why, I don’t remember! I think it just felt good. Live, we used two basses (playing utterly unmusical chords that were stabbed and left to sustain or sometimes hit in staccato or opposing rhythms), drums, a “percussionist” that slammed down on a metal table with a metal strap, crude cassette loops of various sounds/noises (usually some kind of undefined ROAR), and Norman Westberg’s glorious sustained and screaming guitar chords.

It was pretty elating to play live—for us. If 100 people showed up (which would have been a huge audience at the time—20 was more the average), 80 were guaranteed to leave by the second song. Somehow that tension—contempt or indifference from the audience—was nourishing, so we kept going. 

Here’s some music I was listening to at the time: Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, The Stooges, Brian Eno, Teenage Jesus And The Jerks, DNA, The Contortions, Glenn Branca, Black Flag, early Pink Floyd, This Heat, Kraftwerk, The Germs, Cabaret Voltaire, Can, Public Image LTD., SPK…

Read our recent interview with Gira, and watch a documentary about Swans:

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