Soundtracks for the Blind

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Editorial Reviews

All Music Guide - Ned Raggett
Choosing to extinguish the band name under which Gira and Jarboe had worked together for so long must not have been an easy step, but when they decided to end Swans with one last studio release as a prelude to a farewell tour, they did so with what turned out to be their biggest and best album ever. Interestingly, the double-disc, two-and-a-half-hour long Soundtracks makes no pretensions at being a uniform creation like The White Album or Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness; Gira's own notes indicate the song sources as being from "hand-held cassette recordings to found sounds, to samples, to loops, to finished multitrack recordings," recorded with ten different ...
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Editorial Reviews

All Music Guide - Ned Raggett
Choosing to extinguish the band name under which Gira and Jarboe had worked together for so long must not have been an easy step, but when they decided to end Swans with one last studio release as a prelude to a farewell tour, they did so with what turned out to be their biggest and best album ever. Interestingly, the double-disc, two-and-a-half-hour long Soundtracks makes no pretensions at being a uniform creation like The White Album or Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness; Gira's own notes indicate the song sources as being from "hand-held cassette recordings to found sounds, to samples, to loops, to finished multitrack recordings," recorded with ten different musicians. Everything from raging electric music in extreme to the gentlest of acoustic strums can be found here, ultimately being a perfect encapsulation of Swans' sound -- as much as any greatest-hits anthology could ever have been. "The Helpless Child," the epic-length Gira-sung piece previewed on Die Tür ist Zu, amazingly gets an even more brilliant revision here, while another similarly lengthy track, "The Sound," at once roars and whispers over its length in a way that early Swans -- much less many other bands -- could never have done. Other tracks continue Swans' then-recent practice of mixing random taped conversations with exquisitely arranged performances: "I Was a Prisoner in Your Skull" is especially noteworthy as the clear forerunner of Godspeed you Black Emperor!'s entire musical approach. Jarboe's own tracks are all winners, from the fractured, tempo-shifting techno of "Volcano" to the howling live version of a solo album track from Sacrificial Cake, "Yum-Yab Killers." Ending on the unexpected yet appropriate "Surrogate Drone," Soundtracks lets Swans bow out from recording on the highest note possible.
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Product Details

  • Release Date: 10/2/2001
  • Label: Young God Records
  • UPC: 658457000120
  • Catalog Number: 1
  • Sales rank: 12,894

Tracks

Disc 1
  1. 1 Red Velvet Corridor (3:04)
  2. 2 I Was a Prisoner in Your Skull (6:39)
  3. 3 Helpless Child (15:47)
  4. 4 Live Through Me (2:31)
  5. 5 Yum-Yab Killers (5:07)
  6. 6 The Beautiful Days (7:49)
  7. 7 Volcano (5:19)
  8. 8 Mellothumb (2:45)
  9. 9 All Lined Up (4:48)
  10. 10 Surrogate 2 (1:51)
  11. 11 How They Suffer (5:52)
  12. 12 Animus (10:42)
Disc 2
  1. 1 Red Velvet Wound (2:02)
  2. 2 The Sound (13:11)
  3. 3 Her Mouth Is Filled with Honey (3:18)
  4. 4 Blood Section (2:39)
  5. 5 Hypogirl (2:44)
  6. 6 Minus Something (4:14)
  7. 7 Empathy (6:45)
  8. 8 I Love You This Much (7:23)
  9. 9 Yrp (7:46)
  10. 10 Fan's Lament (1:28)
  11. 11 Secret Friends (3:08)
  12. 12 The Final Sacrifice (10:27)
  13. 13 Yrp 2 (2:09)
  14. 14 Surrogate Drone (2:09)
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Album Credits

Performance Credits
Swans Primary Artist, Primary Artist
Jarboe Keyboards, Vocals, Loops, Sounds
Michael Gira Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Vocals, Sampling, Loops, Sounds
Algis Kizys Musician
Larry Mullins Percussion, Drums, Vibes
Bill Rieflin Musician
Vudi Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar
Norman Westberg Musician
Kris Force Viola
Joe Goldring Bass, Bass Guitar, Electric Guitar
Larry Lame Musician
Christopher Hahn Musician
Technical Credits
Martin Bisi Engineer
Jarboe Sound Effects, Producer
Michael Gira Sound Effects, Producer, Concept
Clinton Steele Contributor
Billy Anderson Engineer
Norman Westberg Contributor
P.M. Froehle Photo Manipulation, Execution
Larry Lame Engineer
Andy Ray Engineer
Bill Fieflin Contributor
Braden King Execution
Chris Griffin Engineer, Mastering, Collage
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