If you include cassettes, records, compilations, CDRs, and CDs, and other random releases, Yellow Swans have been involved in something like 50 different releases over the past 6 years or so. Last year, the group announced that they were calling it quits as a duo, and now Going Places is their swan (so to speak) song.

In all honestly, calling myself even a casual fan of the group would be an exaggeration. I don’t have any of their weird, limited self-pressed material, and have only really heard their albums released on the Load Records label (which were massive and often quite beautiful) plus a couple other nuggets of their output.

Because of that, I’m probably not the best judge of their work, but based on their previous work that I’ve heard and now this final album, I’d have to say that they ended with what was probably their most solid run.

Several years ago, while writing for my other site, I used the term ‘power ambient’ to describe the album Harmony In Ultraviolet by Tim Hecker, and while lots of other albums have come and gone that one could probably group in that category, it seems particularly fitting to describe this 6 song, 45-minute album from the Yellow Swans in the same terms. It’s one of those albums that hugely textural, with grit and drone and dense washes, but at the same time it doesn’t simply use feedback or piercing tones to make a point. If you play it at a low volume, it would be sort of a gray noise with hints of melody, but loud volumes is where it really shines.

“Foiled” opens the album and basically includes all of the aforementioned elements as a three-note sheet of warmer melody slowly gets overtaken by a swarming, mechanical haze that moves forward with a murky kick drum that gets engulfed by everything else more than once.

“Foiled” – Yellow Swans

While a good portion of the album moves in the same sort of pulsing, heaving manner, for my money the best cut on the album (and one of my favorite ambient/noise pieces in probably the past six months or more) is the 7-minute “Limited Space.” A repetitive bell noise keeps a foothold as it moves through the first section, all the while a barely-contained swath of noise builds. By the end of the track, some crushing bass tones mix in and the whole thing melts down into burnt-out squelches of spine-tingling goodness. I’ve put it on repeat for half-hour intervals and not tired of it.

“Limited Space” – Yellow Swans

And so, the era of Yellow Swans as a group has drawn to a close, but they’ve certainly signed off with a solid statement. Fans of massive ambient or noise fans who like a little melodic in the mix should seek this out pronto.

(buy Going Places from amazon.com)
(buy Going Places from Type Records)