6. SwansCop
The first album I heard was Filth, which piqued my interest because at the time I was a bodybuilder and bondi boxing, so I would work out listening to Filth. But by the time Cop came out I had been in the studio in Zurich when they were recording and had a little bit to do with the way the vocals were performed for that album, by suggesting things to Michael.
Cop had not been released yet but I had the record on cassette, and I always remember listening to it as I walked through the desert not far from the Sangre de Cristo mountains in Colorado. They call it Sangre de Cristo because in the afternoon it looks like the mountains are bleeding, as if blood is pouring down. So imagine this mountain range in red and all around you just sand and desert, no sign of humanity. So whenever I listen to this album I do not hear downtown New York or the dirge of the inner city and the burned-down buildings of the East Village, I hear the majesty of deserts and mountain ranges and isolation. It captures that sense of really small in front of nature, and that is why I love that album. It continually brings me back to being alone walking in that landscape. It you really visualize yourself that way, you really hear what I am talking about. It is a very primal and organic sounding album to me. Cop and the Young God EP really are like one album, and they both have an animalistic feel to them and I love that. They are very raw and they downright bloody, they are dripping blood.
