Swans Week – Circus Mort

These New Yorkers — led by future Swans founder/guitarist Michael Gira — sound like they want to back you into a corner and harangue you into a screaming fit. They’re not some punks on a rampage, though — this is amphetaminized dance music with a faint European tinge and cool, discreet keyboards. As a hectoring vocalist, Gira is, under the circumstances, quite articulate. I’ll be good — honest! Jim Green / Trouser Press

Before they graced us with the monolithic Swans, Michael Gira and Jonathan Kane released this curious relic of bash-you-up NY postpunk called Circus Mort. Sharing a musical approach not so terribly unlike their peers, Circus Mort were able to carve their own pint-sized niche by taking the basic angular, bass-driven postpunk formula, and injecting it with a good dose of grit and gravel resulting in something that might best be described as Wall of Voodoo smacked in the face with a Big Black shovel. – Life On The Dot

Circus Mort was a New York band that existed for a very brief period in the late 70s / early 80s, but they managed to record one EP, opened for Bauhaus and its members went on to form Swans and The Del Byzanteens (among other bands).
Discography
Circus Mort 12″ (Labor, 1981)
Further Info: Last.fm | Wikipedia | Kiwi Dodo | Life On The Dot | Scaruffi | Trouser Press