Swans

Why has nobody gotten around to this yet?

Swans' 2012 album The Seer is an instant prog classic, and certainly qualifies them for inclusion.  To some degree their previous album, My Father Will Guide Me... does as well.  Which sub-genre?  Good question.  I would semi-jokingly say Krautrock, honestly.  Or maybe eclectic or something.

Samples:














so good

thellama73 wrote: I like Swans. I only have Children of God/World of Skin though, and it is not very prog.

Hence the caveat that it is The Seer which qualifies them for the site

Brief sampling confirms this. I can't really thing of another place where it could fit. I'll alert the team.

Everything they've done is "progressive," but unfortunately that's not necessarily what "prog rock" means

Interesting. My initial reaction was just "No", but I haven't got The Seer (yet - I'm a big fan and I will be buying it).

I've not heard everything they've done but I'd definitely agree that The Seer is the most progressive I've heard from them, not sure where they would fit on PA, though.

And I still like Filth more :P

Put in a resounding 'NO' this morning but hadn't seen this thread nor heard The Seer yet.

Intriguing listen, being largely instrumental it brings the music more to the fore then any other Swans album.
Not sure though this one album is Prog enough to support inclusion of this band.
Not that the 'indie' label does them any justice of course...

Post-Rock? I guess.

It's only logical that Swans should be in the database, like seriously.

I have only just begun my journey with this band - meaning, I own some 5 albums by them, but as I hear it, what really would qualify them for inclusion here on PA, surely would be the most recent releases, where I for one hear a lot of post-rock. The thing is, it's pretty much their own concoction of it no less. Unlike Dean, I tend to hear it as something unequivocally progressive.
It doesn't sound like anything other in terms of post-rock, and that has a lot to do with the sombre and long drawn out atmospheres. Krautrock has been suggested, and maybe there is something in these vast atmospherics, I still think post fits better.
Anywho, the thing is - is a few (or one) album(s) enough, when the artists have a huge discography behind them that has little to do with PA. If so, where are The Scorpions? Or Serge Gainsbourg?
We either need that album tagging thing - allowing us to enter individual progressive outings, or else we have to go through a lot of those "Are Swans really prog?" Threads...