Swans’ Michael Gira names his favourite albums
Swans remain one of the world’s most experimental bands. They have persistently changed their sound and never conformed to expectations of genre or performance, exploring the sonic textures of noise rock, post-punk and industrial rock. The inimitable Michael Gira leads them, and a few years back, he named some of his favourite albums.
Gira profoundly respects Miles Davis’ experimentation on On The Corner, released in 1972. It was a record that continued Davis’ exploration of jazz-fusion and began to dig into the funk sound that had started to dominate the 1970s, such as that by funk and soul pioneers Sly Stone and James Brown.
Discussing the album, Gira said: “I love the grooves on it, and it’s interesting in that there are no melodies. It sounds like electronic music, except it has the fortunate aspect of being played by humans. It’s obviously influenced by James Brown, one of my favourite artists. James Brown is like the Bach of modern music, a fantastic composer, so complicated and yet so much below the hips as well.”
While Gira respects David Bowie, he also makes the unpopular claim that he only enjoyed a solid ten years of his career. Discussing Bowie’s iconic The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, Gira said: “He had ten really good years. The rest has been really dismal, unfortunately, in my opinion. But that album is a masterpiece in terms of arrangements and songwriting, everything.”
He added: “It manages to sort of rock, but at that same time, it has this sort of cabaret song aspect to it, and from a producer’s point of view, which I suppose you could call me, it’s impeccable: no sound gets in the way of another sound, it’s always changing with every four to eight bars. It’s as good as, if not better than, Sgt Pepper’s. One of the best rock albums ever made.”
Given Swans’ raw sound, it may not come as a shock to learn that Gira is also a huge fan of Iggy Pop and the Stooges, particularly their self-titled debut record. “It’s fantastic; what can I say?” Gira said. “Iggy’s a brilliant lyricist in his own way, and the production on that album by John Cale is stellar. It doesn’t get any better than that, and, again, I don’t care about them being the forefathers of anything; I just enjoy the music”.
Elsewhere, Gira is an apparent fan of the likes of Nick Drake, Bob Dylan, The Doors, Pink Floyd and many more. Check out the complete list of his favourite albums below.
Michael Gira’s favourite albums:
- Miles Davis – On The Corner
- Kraftwerk – The Man-Machine
- David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
- Throbbing Gristle – 20 Jazz Funk Greats
- The Stooges – The Stooges
- The Doors – Strange Days
- The Mothers of Invention – Freak Out!
- Nick Drake – Pink Moon
- Henryk Gorecki – Symphonie No.2
- Bob Dylan – Blood On The Tracks
- Arvo Part – Tabula Rasa
- Howlin’ Wolf – The Chess Box
- Pink Floyd – Ummagumma
