Swans - Love Of Life FLAC

Two tracks make this EP rare and remarkable: the extended mixes of Love of Life & Amnesia that are far removed from the originals in structure, texture and tonality. With their consistent tempo, wealth of samples and disembodied vocals they lack the urgency & tension of the familiar versions, thus giving a strange, atypical perspective to the sound of Swans.

The short version of Love of Life is a driving, uptempo rock song dominated by the jangling drone of a wall of sound created by electric, bass and acoustic guitars. The male vocal is in synch with the melody whilst the female weaves in and out of the mix, contributing an other-worldly aspect to its multilayered texture.

Adam Jankowsky's narration from the track Identity has been integrated in the extended Love of Life but the clipped enunciation here lacks the oneiric quality of the original. Following the recital, the phrase 'we're blind and we're polluted' is looped over and over until displaced by the choral vocals of Jarboe. Eerie industrial sounds populate the extended Amnesia.

Introspective and gentle, Picture of Maryanne resembles songs like Blind on Gira's Drainland or In The Eyes of Nature and No Cure for the Lonely on the Love of Love album. As far as can be established, the track only appears on Various Failures. This EP is worth having for the bizarre remixes of Love of Life & Amnesia.