During their long existence, Swans, or rather Michael Gira - its perpetual driving force, went through various periods of development, from the pummeling dirges of the early releases like "Filth" and "Cop" to folk influenced ballads of "Burning World" or "White Light From The Mouth of Infinity" to industrial-tinged minimalism of "The Great Annihilator," eventually arriving with the monumental and final studio album "Soundtracks For The Blind." This opus is long, like some infinitely stretched canvas. Two CDs and almost two and a half hours of music cover a lot of ground. The record alternates between "proper" songs (of which there is about 10) and various soundscapes. The moody soundscapes, consisting of instrumentals, tapes, loops, samples, noise collages, drones, found sounds, embrace extensive spectrum, from industrial elements to noise and ambient and everything in between. There we have liquid vibrations of "Red Velvet Corridor," drones of "The Beautiful Days," haunting keyboard layers of "Surrogate 2," electronic noise of "I Love You This Much," rockier "Blood Section," Neurosis-like pounding on "All Lined Up," a sound sample of Gira's father talking about his blindness on "How They Suffer" - powerful stuff - ...and you can go on and on. The actual songs too, cover a spacious area, from contorted techno of "Volcano" to Jarboe's belligerent screams on militant "Yum-Yab Killers" to her creepy laments on "Hypogirl" to Gira's lingering ballads like "Helpless Child," "Empathy," "Animus" or "The Final Sacrifice." The album can be equaled to some colossal mosaic where numerous, variant fragments are joined by a common thread to create a panorama of dark passions, inner demons and dramatic moodswings.

The entire record is pretty tough to engulf at one sitting. Also, if you are not a fan of the whole noise-ambient thing, this candy will be very hard for you to swallow, although, I must repeat that the "proper" songs are outstanding - long, involving, very emotional, ridden with dark instrumentation veering from atmospheric serenity to abrasive distortion. "Soundtracks For The Blind" may not be an easy ride, but it is a stirring, grandiose and tragic work that deserves to be heard.

© 1999 boris