Young God Records
Given that these two albums were meant to be a three partseries I can only speculate that the bonus material was part of thenever finished third album. Perhaps part three became Gira's Angels ofLight? This would make sense as listening to the reissues as it ispossible to chart the transition from the Swans to Gira's later worksboth solo and with the Angels of Light. The Body Lovers album (originally titled Number One of Three)is a number of interlinked tracks that over the course of the albumshows the diverse styles and range of Gira's output over the last 20years. There are riffs taken from older Swans songs and material thatwould later become part of Angels of Light releases. On the first trackGira seems to be working the Swans out of his system. Towards the endof album, a tone that is more the Angels of Light takes over. In fact, The Body Lovers sounds almost like a dual between both bands with the Angels seemingly the victors. The Body Haters album (originally titled 34:13)is the second round of the fight where the Swans come up trumps.Divided into two tracks, the first is ten minutes or so of unreleasedmaterial and the second being the original album. The unreleasedmaterial is only partly unreleased, it is a collage of variousrecordings, most of which seem to be used later in different contextson the Angels of Light album Everything is Good Here/Please Come Home. It does not really fit with The Body Haters,it sounds exactly like what it is, a piece of unused music to enticesomeone who already owns the album to buy it. The second track makes upfor the first with thirty minutes of drones and noise, not in anabrasive way but more ambient. It starts off disorientating as a fewsmall samples are looped and processed. It eventually builds up into aclamor that sounds like a church organ made of fire alarms. This goesup and down in pitch and Gira adds layers of effects to it over thenext half an hour. It finishes up with what sounds like Jarboe's vocalstime stretched and heavily treated which builds up to an intense andloud finale, something the young Gira would have been proud of. Whetherthis reissue is worth buying for those with the original albums isdebatable, the bonus material is good for a Frankenstein-type creationbut possibly not worth buying the set again for. Both albums do stillsound as fresh and exciting now as they did seven years ago. The Body Lovers/The Body Haters works as a nice overview of Gira's work, something like a best of without any actual songs that you know on it.samples:
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