NEW MOTHER

Trivia question, no peeking! Name a Texas based group whose main man got entangled in a side project and didn't eventually go back to the mother group. Answer below, but for this review we are dealing with the first release of MIchael Gira's folk adjacent offshoot from SWANS, ANGELS of LIGHT, which occupied him over a 13 year prison break, only to find himself in another prison of sorts. Maybe it's him?

I know little of SWANS except that they are something of a darling of the PA cognoscenti, which of course means they are in the post/math rock realm, outside of which ANGELS OF LIGHT decidedly reside. Still, to maintain they are also off kilter even for prog folk would hardly be looked upon askance. Firstly, GIra's voice seems almost intentionally grating, and his lyrics can be gracelessly prurient and/or Christianically cringeworthy. He slow walks his vocal melodies in a manner that's more than "a little bit country". Referencing the old C&W joke about playing the music backwards to hear all the happy stuff, it wouldn't work here because his speed is already in reverse.

Of course, this is all the classic set up to say that "New Mother" is actually half a really good album, with a certain connection to the melancholy that is the prog folk stock in trade amongst those who no longer expect protest music utterly lacking in symbolism. The quality does peter out in the second half but is best exemplified by the surprisingly elegant "Praise Your Name", the title cut, the title cut with the name of the band, the romantic "This is MIne", and the nostalgic "Song for my Father". For the rest, sometimes it's painful ("Shame", "Fear of Death"), sometimes just painless drudgery ("How we End").

The answer to my earlier trivia question is SIXTEEN HORSEPOWER, whose offshoot led by David Eugene Edwards, WOVENHAND, is still a going concern, and both are alt country oriented, with the latter being here on PA.

This was obviously quite a departure for Gira which might explain why it was on the subsequent album that ANGELS of LIGHT attained a level of popularity commensurate with the reputation of its main man. I can't say they have rebirthed a new fan 25 years later but my interest is piqued enough to explore one select SWANS recording.