World of Skin
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World Of Skin was a project springing out of the band Swans, and was a collaboration between longtime Swans members Jarboe and Gira. The project was initially called Skin, with the first two albums being released under that name in Europe. All US releases, however, were made under the name World of Skin.
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[edit] History
Swans' album Greed began a trend toward greater use of melody, and this trend continued with the later Children of God. The work performed as Skin was initially in marked contrast with the less overtly melodic but contemporaneous Swans work, but later Swans work integrated the two aspects.
Blood, Women, Roses (1987) was the project's first release and featured vocals entirely by Jarboe, who had previously mainly been performing backing vocals. Many of the tracks on this album were covers of show tunes and other popular songs (for example Cry Me A River and The Man I Love). Many of the tracks still featured the monumental use of percussion that was common in earlier Swans work, but combined this with a greater use of melody (Red Rose is typical of this).
Blood, Women, Roses was followed in 1988 by Shame, Humility. Revenge which featured vocals by Michael Gira rather than Jarboe (though she did perform some backing vocals). Gira's flatter vocal style (nearly spoken word on many songs on the album) sometimes seems at odds with the musical style of the album, and in particular makes the acoustic cover of Iggy Pop's I Want To Be Your Dog sound distinctive.
The first two albums were released only in Europe, but they were combined in the US release World Of Skin (released with the band name World Of Skin), which was followed by the final Skin release, Ten Songs From Another World, featuring vocals from both performers, including a cover of Nick Drake's Black Eyed Dog performed by Jarboe.
Of the many Swans album releases, the one which is stylistically most similar to the World Of Skin work is The Burning World, which Gira indicates that he's least satisfied with.[citation needed] The release which most significantly raised the profile of the project was Girl: Come Out which was briefly a hit in some European gay clubs.
[edit] Band Members
- Jarboe - Vocals, keyboards, sounds (1987-1990)
- Michael Gira - Vocals, guitar, keyboards, samples, sounds (1987-1990)
- Norman Westberg - Guitar (1988)
- Harry Crosby - Bass (1988)
[edit] Discography
[edit] Studio Releases
- Blood, Women, Roses - (1987)
- Girl: Come Out 12" - (1987)
- One Thousand Years 12" - (1987)
- Shame, Humility, Revenge - (1988)
- Ten Songs From Another World - (1990)
[edit] Compilations
- World Of Skin - (1988)
[edit] External links
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