Artist.......: Angels of Light
Album........: We Are Him
Label........: Young God
Genre........: Indie
Catnr........: n/a
source.......: CDDA
rip.date.....: Jun-13-2007
str.date.....: Aug-13-0000
quality......: VBR/44.1Hz/Joint-Stereo
Url..........: n/a
track title time
01. black river song 03:15
02. promise of water 05:27
03. the man we left behind 05:51
04. my brother's man 04:18
05. not here , not now 05:42
06. joseph's song 04:03
07. we are him 04:11
08. sometimes i dream i'm hurting you 06:27
09. sunflower's here to stay 03:01
10. good bye mary lou 03:08
11. the visitor 04:36
12. star chaser 05:50
Runtime 55:49 min
Size 75,8 MB
Release Notes:
"Michael Gira is one of maybe ten people in the
whole world who inspired me to pick up a guitar
and try to write songs in the first place. He
continues to be a tremendous influence on me. A new
Angels of Light record is always cause for
celebration around our house, and though each one
is always better than the last, this new one is
going to be hard to topà Forget everything you know
about Michael Gira and Angels of Light, even if
you love everything you know about Michael Gira and
Angels of Light (which I most certainly do) - We
Are Him is an intimidatingly great album and a
highlight in a career of highlightsà. Michael Gira
taught me that you don't need to play loud to play
heavy, you don't need to compromise to be a success
to those who really count, and all you need to make
rock and roll soup is some piss, some vomit, a
little blood, and a few hundred wet cigarette
butts." - James Toth / Wooden Wand
"We Are Him is the most assured and relaxed Angels
of Light album since the debut, and deserves to be
considered alongside Gira's highest peaks. The
frightening rage of old Swans surfaces several
times, albeit in more bucolic clothing; the
contrast is bracing. Lyrically Gira's constantly
in-pocket, addressing his subjects with renewed
agility, but
also in a very relaxed voice; if De Sade had lived
long enough to tell folk tales around a campfire,
some of them might have sounded like this. The
genuinely playful orchestration - banjos? horns?
chimes? slide? check û is by turns charming and
perverse, and has a band-of-brethren feel to it
that's both ominous and exiting. The title track is
like a pure shot of adrenaline. An intimate,
unexpected masterpiece." - John Darnielle/The
Mountain Goats
Michael Gira | Angels of LightWe Are Him began with
my usual vows to keep things simple this time,
finally, and I failed once again to live up to the
task. I went into the studio with Akron/Family as
backing band (as they had been on Other People). We
recorded all the basic tracks in a week. They
played drums, bass, guitar, piano, and backing
vocals. Despite Akron's valorous efforts and fine
performances, things sounded thin and tentative to
me, so I started calling my friends to help me
flesh things out. Christoph Hahn came to Brooklyn
from his home in Berlin (Christoph played in Swans
for a while, and has played in several Angels
incarnations - he has his own group called Les
Hommes Sauvage too) and played his usual stellar
"kraut-abilly" electric guitar stylings, as well as
open-tuned lap steel. That helped considerably, and
gave the songs balls, or bowels in many instances,
as well as occasionally lifting things up nach
Himmelà Next came Bill Rieflin. Bill is as fine a
gentleman as you'll ever meet. He also played in
Swans at one point. When I met him he was drumming
in Ministry. He's since moved on to play with
Robert Fripp (off and on I think), Robyn Hitchcock,
and he currently is the drummer for REM. He's an
incredibly expressive musician, on a variety of
instruments. He played: Hammond B3 organ, Moog
synthesizer, electric guitar, bass guitar,
drums/percussion, piano, casio, and backing vocals
and probably 3 or 4 things I can't remember at the
momentà Next the spirited and gracious Eszter
Balint played fiddle/violin to great effect. She
played mostly drone based parts, but injected a lot
of feel through inflection and modulation. She's a
wonderful player and she also just brings a sense
of warmth into the studio which is most welcome.
She also sang some backing vocals here and there.
Eszter first came to wide public notice through her
central role in the film Strangers In Paradise, but
she's gone on to become a fine singer,
instrumentalist, and songwriter in her own right -
look her up!....
Next came Julia Kent on cello and Paul Cantelon on
violin. They played multitracked string sections on
a few songs here and there, "arranged" on the fly.
Julia's a member of Antony and The Johnsons, and
she does some arrangements as well as playing
therein. Paul is primarily a pianist, composer,
arranger and recently a soundtrack composer for
some high fallutin' films, the names of which I now
forget, but I like the way he plays violin, with
lots of warble and feeling. He and Julia work quite
well together too and have the added advantage
(from my perspective) of tolerating my vague
descriptions and out of tune humming-of-part
suggestions, and then taking those scanty
guidelines and making something musical and fully
realized out of them. No mean feat !.. Next came my
pal and x-neighbor in Brooklyn Steve Moses. Steve's
a drummer and trombone player. He's in the band
Alice Donut and also has his own solo extravaganza
called Drumbone and also an improv duo called
Lambic. He played trombone like a brontosaurus on
this record. He also played drums and trombone on a
few of Devendra's YGR releasesà next came the
estimable musical encyclopedia and flute player
(and multi instrumentalist ) of true finesse David
Garland. He played flute on a few songs, and also
did some rather deep backing vocs. He's another
great presence to have in the studio, though he's a
little intimidating because he's such a repository
of all things musical. He hosts the shows (on NYC
public radio station WNYC) Evening Music and
Spinning On Air. Aside from playing classical music
and film scores and more, he's also been a big
supporter of people like Devendra, Akron/Family, Mi
and L'au and other contemporary rock/folk related
music, as well as myself. David's also a
songwriter/singer and should be checked out too!...
Next came the glorious Siobhan Duffy and Larkin
Grimm, singing "Chick Vox"on several songs (and
Siobhan sings a cameo on the song Not Here/Not
Now). Siobhan drummed for years in the NYC
noise/skronk band God Is My Co-Pilot, but she went
on to become the singer of the group Gunga Din,
then drumming for Kid Congo and also Flux
Information Sciences. She's sadly temporarily
retired from music. She's got a very particular and
unique voice, and it's a big loss. Larkin is a
wild-ass Georgia mountain woman, or She-Shaman, or
something. Ha ha! She too has an amazing voice, a
huge range and as a songwriter she's eccentric and
fiercely expressive and really coming into herself.
She's got a few CDs out - look for 'em. We're also
in the nascent stages of working on an album that
she'll be putting out on Young God Recordsà Next
came my old touring buddy Phil Paleo. Phil was
drummer in a band called Cop Shoot Cop, but he
played drums and yes, hammer dulcimer in Swans
final phase. He played hammer dulcimer on a few
songs hereà Birgit "Cassis" Staudt played accordion
and melodica on a few songs. She's played and
toured in several Angels incarnations, and she's a
chanteuse you can find playing cabarets and
nightclubs in NYCà My big buddy and protector Pat
Fondiller played a little mandolin here and there.
He did a great job. His hands are bigger than the
mandolin! Pat played bass on an Angels tour a while
ago, and he also plays in the hard rock combo
Smokewagonà The record was recorded at Trout
Recording by Bryce Goggin and at Seizure's Palace
by Jason La Farge, both in Brooklyn, and in fact
right around the corner where I used to live. It
was mixed by Bryce at Trout. Thanks to them, and
all the above! Also big thanks to the fellow
musicians/friends who supplied the
extremely kind words about the record on this pageà
Michael Gira/ æ07
"the moment I played -we are him- my heart exploded
with the feeling 'that voice!!!!!!' and it has done
it to me everytime I have ever heard it. From my
first cassette of filth to this newest work,
michael gira's singing is my favorite gentle
violence and lovers strangulation. Now is the best
he has ever sounded and I cannot without sounding
insanely thrilled express how much this means to
me. -we are him- is touching, frightening,
wonderfully different and whole." } - Jamie
Stewart / Xiu Xiu
"Whatés a young turk to do when Michael Gira, at
52, is at the height of his powers? Everything
Iéve loved about his previous work ê the
apocalyptic soundscapes, the window-shattering
drums, the glistening acoustic passages, the voice
like God speaking out of the whirlwind - is
distilled and reimagined in these songs, and
infused with an organic warmth that only makes them
the more urgent and harrowing. By turns
frightening, funny, cathartic, wise, even strangely
sweet, "We Are Him" is a sprawling masterpiece by
an artist whose muse seems more fertile than ever."
- Jonathan Meiburg / Shearwater
"MichaelÆs shirtless screaming is now finally
reborn into something closer to the intensity of
Nina Simone than punk rock. The song forms are now
clear and strong enough to support vocal
performances that sometimes sound like a
25-year-old Michael simultaneously hallucinating
and dictating the dark underbelly of the Amercian
Dream. And now that this strength and intensity is
firmly rooted in tradition it can take on a whole
new level of meaning and interplay and
understanding that I find simply wonderful. This
is not indie rock or Americana, this is authentic
American music; or as Gram Parsons said, ' Cosmic
American Music ' " - Seth Olinsky / Akron/Family