Tag Archive: Swans


The enduring appeal of Rema-Rema

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May 29, 2023

WHAT YOU COULD NOT VISUALISE directed by Marco Porsia (Canada, 2022)

It takes a special kind of music obsessive to contemplate making a documentary about an obscure indie band who released just one four-track EP and only played about a dozen live shows. There are no videos or live footage of Rema-Rema. Even in Simon Reynolds’ definitive study of post-punk, ‘Rip It And Start Again’, the English band are only mentioned in passing to say that Marco Pirroni played with them.

Rema-Rema’s ‘Wheel In The Roses’ EP was the first release on the esteemed 4AD label jointly founded by  Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent. On the 4AD website, Watt-Russell describes hearing the band’s demo for the first time as a kind of epiphany: “It was the first point I knew that we were actually doing something serious.”

The distinctive cover shot of African tribesmen was the main reason why many bought the EP in the first place. The sleeve gives no other information other than to list the musicians: Gary Asquith (guitar/vocals), Marco Pirroni (guitar), Mick Allen (bass/vocals), Mark Cox (keyboards) and Dorothy Max Prior (drums).

Rema-Rema were apparently named after a Polish machine manufacturer (don’t ask!) although it’s probable that it was picked because had same catchy resonance as The Kingsmen’s rock standard ‘Louie Louie’.

Turin-born director Marco Porsia (now based in Canada) has already gained the esteem of serious music lovers through his brilliant documentary charting the rise and rise of  Michael Gira and Swans – Where Does A Body End? (2019). It was no coincidence that Swans were playing in Bologna the day after his attendance at the screening of ‘What You Could Not Visualise’ at the city’s Cineteca. (Swans’ drummer Phil Puleo was sitting in front of me in the audience!)  

In the film, guitarist Marco Pirroni is the off-stage villain of the piece. Pirroni left the band abruptly to seek fame and fortune with Adam & The Ants. The remaining four members could not contemplate carrying on without him. Their story could have ended there but in researching this film, Porsia found to his surprise and delight that he was not alone in regarding Rema-Rema’s 1980 EP as a treasured artefact; a kind of holy grail of post-punk.

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MY TEN FAVOURITE ALBUMS OF 2012

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December 22, 2012

bestalbums2012

Tom Carter who, with ex-wife and musical partner Christina, makes up one half of Charalambides had more opportunity than most for self reflection this year but not in the happiest of circumstances.

During a UK tour he was struck down with severe pneumonia and spent long periods in isolation as part of his treatment. Due to the absurd health system, this also meant he faced huge medical bills.

Thankfully, if his prolific contributions to Twitter are anything to go by, he now seems to be on the road to recovery. One of his Tweets was to the effect that, this year, instead of making lists of the best new albums, we should go back to past years and check if those records we raved about have stood the test of time.

While I understand where he’s coming from, for me, one of the key appeals of contemporary music is that it fuels an insatiable desire for something truly radical and fresh. Needless to say, 2012 passed with plenty of good new sounds to enjoy but nothing that could be described as life changing. Continue reading →

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LIVE SWANS

Filed under: Italy, Music — Leave a comment
December 7, 2010

Are you looking at me?

WANTED

Rumours of the death of Swans have been exaggerated.

I can vouch for this having experienced their ear-bruising concert at Bologna’s Locomotiv club.

The volume alone is loud enough to waken corpses and should lay to rest any notion that Michael Gira has reconvened the band as a cosy nostalgia act. These six guys may no longer be in the full flush of youth but they put any snot-nosed noise bands to shame.

Gira, at the tender age of 56 , has the look of someone rejuvenated, a fact already placed on record by the September release of the stunning new Swans album My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky.

He is clearly not kidding when he says that in performance he seeks to achieve a state of  “simultaneous self negation and rebirth”. Continue reading →

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Michael Gira sings for the sinners

Filed under: Italy, Music — 2 Comments
November 21, 2008

Michael Gira – ‘Gira’ is pronounced as in ‘giraffe’ without the ‘ffe’  – is from the strum and holler school of rock.
On stage in Ravenna, his elegant, dignified bearing together with his courteous stage manners belie the fact that his songs are packed with raw emotion and barely concealed rage.

He sings of  blood , pain, sin, death, desire and, if you’re lucky,  brief glimpses of redemption.

 
Gira’s aura and passion would make him  an highly effective hellfire preacher with the capacity to terrorise a rapt congregation. Fortunately for us he’s on the side of the sinners of the world.

The songs struck me as not so much composed as wrenched from the dark depths of his psyche then thrust into the cold light of day, still pulsing and hurting.

His baritone singing voice can best be described as full blooded. What he lacked in vocal range he more than made up for with the power and directness of the delivery. When words failed he yelped and howled very effectively.

 A tune he described as a quiet song (Reeling The Liars In) contains lines about collecting skin and eating tongues. The volume may not be loud but the imagery most certainly is.

He played ten songs in all – see Last.fm here for the set list.

The two best songs he played were ‘Promise of Water’ and ‘Blind’. The latter he introduced as an “ancient ‘Swans’ song” and in it the first person narrator (a younger version of Gira himself?)  describes an unwillingness to  face  up to the violence and suffering he witnesses. Two lines that stood out for me were “I created a lie” and  “I was strong, clear-minded and blind”. The second line later switches ‘clear-minded’ to ‘self deluded’.

Promise Of Water combines a strong portentious beat with some more vivid imagery, this time of howling dogs and streets filled with blood. The song doesn’t lend itself to a tidy synopsis (in other words, I have no idea what it was about!)  but it’s fair to assume he was singing about more than feeling a little thirsty.             

After an hour on stage he bid us farewell saying: “I’d like to leave it there if I may – I feel I’ve done the best that I can possibly do”.    

It was just about the right length for music of this intensity. While Gira is not an artist whose records I could imagine listening to a lot, I was impressed by his stage presence and enjoyed the honesty of his performance.

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