Yellow Swans/The Goslings

Alright so here it comes, Bored Fortress ’07 numero uno, the reason why 97% of people lost their minds when they first got whiff of the Bored Fortress series: the best noise band on the planet, Yellow Swans and the best heavy (is that a genre?) band on the planet, The Goslings on one single solitary piece of wax. It would be a face-off for the ages, totally barbaric American Gladiator-style except everyone in noise is all about the peace and love (and rightfully so). So anyway, I’ll say it outright Yellow Swans win the whole she-bang, they take the first turn and its game over. The entire rest of the series comes in second place, which is unthinkable because as you can see it’s a hell of a line up. But, what can I say Yellow Swans bring their A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++ game, that’s right, their game is so tight I had to add an extra 27 plus signs to “A game” to attempt to communicate to what degree the tightness is at. This is best thing the Swans have done in a long while and they do some good shit; this is easily the best thing they’ve done since they gave up the drum machine. It rules like the Pharaoh ruled the Israelites except instead of losing to Moses and God, it beats both of them. This track—which is untitled, by the way—is like black lightning or some inconceivable happening that defies the laws of physics. Probably the closest musical example I can compare it to is a Matt Bower project, mainly Hototogisu and the stuff Skullflower is doing now. Massively dense, harsh, impossibly layered noise with a melody drowning just below the surface; like Hototogisu, and unlike a lot of other noise artists, it’s a totally transcendent five minutes. I have never, in my life, been more excited to hear more from Yellow Swans and I love those guys to death (I’m going to see them for my birthday soon too, hooray!). Their recent Descension Yellow Swans LP [Three Lobed] rules as well (though not quite as hard as this track). So my advice, buy up all the stock you can in Yellow Swans this year. My fingers are crossed that they’re gonna speed up production and put out 47 releases this year, just like the olden days but we’ll see how that goes.
The Goslings show up on the B-side in fine form as well. Hot off one of last year’s contenders for album of the year, Grandeur of Hair, comes “Saw-Horse”. I’m not exactly sure when this was recorded or how it relates to the stuff off of GoH. The track doesn’t quite match the speaker maiming density of that full-length but it comes pretty damn close. Despite the track being rather stripped down, Max Soren still smothers us in heavy as dark matter (?) guitar sludge while his special lady Leslie lets out a few siren wails. Rather than a buddy who plays drums on the track (as usually happens) there is an electronic buddy i.e. a Casio or old drum machine of some sort who backs them up with a mega minimal beat. And that’s about it, voice, guitar and drum machine loping along nicely, yet it’s still a huge monolithic piece, much weightier than a mere 7inch would lead you to believe. Word from Britt is there is a Goslings/Knit Witch split LP in the works being co-released by Not Not Fun and the folks over at Night People, so keep yr eyes peeled for that one cause it should be a doozy.
Also, though I’ve never seen any of his other stuff, I’m digging the “acid burn out’s idea of Noah’s ark” artwork by George Myers of Breaking World records. I don’t really know the label that well either. I’ve got some homework to do.