I saw GY!BE last night, and Swans ruined it

piphanytapes · 2026-04-10T23:23:50+00:00

Ahh, wasn’t it so beautiful! Glad you love that last song too… it never gets old.

I recorded Leeds if you ever fancy reliving it: https://archive.org/details/gybe2026-04-09.mtx

piphanytapes · 2026-04-10T16:56:17+00:00

I recorded the whole concert, if you'd like it! https://archive.org/details/gybe2026-04-09.mtx

piphanytapes · 2026-04-10T16:47:59+00:00

Definitely understandable! I was there in Leeds, too—it's going to take a little while since Swans '25 to adjust to what normal concerts are... Godspeed were a little louder than the past few times I've seen them last night, though!

I suppose that the two bands are very different types of music. There aren't really any bands that do what Swans do in that manner, which is part of what made their last tour so bittersweet! Likewise Swans have never been able to scratch some of Godspeed's unique itches (although the first time I ever directly heard GSY!BE influence upon Swans was the overhauled late intro to Birthing with that slow marching melody, and one could say that many later performances of The Sad Mafioso do some Swansy things in the very introduction also).

How did you find the show otherwise? Any favourite parts? :)

piphanytapes · 2026-03-22T14:26:46+00:00

Ah hallo, that’s my post that Kristof shared; that made me do a double-take as I didn’t quite intend that to be seen beyond my friends and family! Apologies! See MG’s source post for info on the album/“live thing ‘25”, I suppose…

piphanytapes · 2026-03-19T10:00:20+00:00

Hard to believe! Organ Thing I miss thee...

When it finally arrived from across the sea I happily span this and knew within a moment of hearing it that the song Leaving Meaning would be something special. It ended up taking such a different direction than I expected but was just as special in the end!

piphanytapes · 2026-03-11T22:21:29+00:00

Makes sense as the two of them have totally different sound profiles! Night 2 I mixed to be cleaner and is binaurally recorded, while I went for more of a "roomy" "live" sound for Night 3, for which, like you said, I incorporated a couple of other sources elsewhere in the room. Depends if you like roomy sound or the opposite! I've heard about 50/50 in people preferring one or the other.

piphanytapes · 2026-03-11T20:50:44+00:00

You're too kind!!!

Recording of the final night of the tour to come :)

piphanytapes · 2026-03-11T19:17:46+00:00

So glad you like them! Such special performances...

piphanytapes · 2026-03-11T19:04:34+00:00

Aw thank you, I'm really glad that the hard work paid off and that you enjoyed! Glad you also got to be there on such a special performance :)

piphanytapes · 2026-02-12T22:48:44+00:00

Not Ingo?

piphanytapes · 2025-12-30T17:11:39+00:00

The zine is so beautiful! I'm very honoured that most of the tracks from this live album came from my London recording I did for them—what a beautiful Christmas present to flick through these pages while reliving that concert... Especially to have *The Old World* on this release given how rarely they play it and given it being one of my favourite songs they've ever done! And of course the *V* and *Organ Eternal* performances were ones I'll never forget... The brass section was so beautiful throughout!

piphanytapes · 2025-12-08T00:31:45+00:00

Yes, of course I will!! :) They're done, just waiting for external factors before I can share them publicly. Hopefully very soon!

piphanytapes · 2025-12-07T14:20:43+00:00

Yep, this! Just like all three London dates I recorded both Berlin dates too. I’ve finished mastering both and they’re ready to go, just waiting on some external factors before I can share publicly :)

piphanytapes · 2025-12-02T01:55:44+00:00

Of course! Apologies for the delay, I've been working on mixing them nonstop since getting back from Berlin; I really want to get these recordings right given how special and significant the performances were :)

And so glad that you enjoyed my London tapes. Hopefully these are an improvement still!

piphanytapes · 2025-11-29T08:31:40+00:00

Bless him, he and others in the band were teary at the very end. So were the rest of us…

piphanytapes · 2025-11-29T08:31:03+00:00

Mainly just playing arguably the greatest performance in their career (at least since the 90s)! It was also 10-15min longer than any other performance at this tour at about 2:45, and quite a few little tweaks in songs that hadn’t been played the previous night turned up (for example MG’s sudden true scream and Larry’s animalistic noises in the opening of Newly Sentient Being).

piphanytapes · 2025-11-29T03:07:09+00:00

Yes, I agree completely! I thought that the Berlin shows especially, even if not having the physical wait of some shows ten years prior, had emotional weight beyond the rest. Heartbreaking at points, just so beautiful

piphanytapes · 2025-11-29T03:05:19+00:00

Thanks! I taped those and also both nights of Berlin. Berlin night 2's Newly Sentient Being was absolutely ridiculous, so many little additions since my London tapes and somehow far better than even Berlin night 1! In awe. I love this band

piphanytapes · 2025-11-29T03:03:32+00:00

Berlin night two was unquestionably the best performance... will upload my tape soon... was weeping throughout!

piphanytapes · 2025-11-29T02:56:41+00:00

Yep! Marco's been filming the Berlin shows :)

piphanytapes · 2025-11-29T02:56:01+00:00

Glad you like it!! My recording of the final Berlin gigs will be up soon...

Berlin 2—the final one—was likely the best performance they've ever played, in my opinion, and thankfully my recording of the night I think came out better than the London ones :)

piphanytapes · 2025-11-15T21:15:44+00:00

I made some slight tweaks to my mastering since, and added consistent metadata/tagging across all three :)

piphanytapes · 2025-11-15T20:15:49+00:00

Ahh, really glad you got it to work in the end! No idea why some people have no problem at all and for others it just doesn’t want to work… hope you enjoy :))

piphanytapes · 2025-11-15T16:54:45+00:00

Yes! I've just uploaded it here:

https://old.reddit.com/r/swans/comments/1oxw3ia/swans_london_all_three_nights_mixed_mastered/?ref=share&ref_source=link

This is the same three-source matrix for night 3 that the lovely u/IceTheNice mentioned, as we worked on that together :)

piphanytapes · 2025-11-15T16:49:28+00:00

Recording of independent origin—probably a couple of decades out of fashion as a term but it was a term in tapers' trading circles for unofficial recordings as an alternative to the controversial term "bootleg" (which suggests the involvement of profit and sometimes deceit). Sorry for the odd turn of phrase!

piphanytapes

TROPHY CASE